Friday, March 29, 2024

AdvertiseDonateSubmit
NewsSportsArtsOpinionThe QuadPhotoVideoIllustrationsCartoonsGraphicsThe StackPRIMEEnterpriseInteractivesPodcastsBruinwalkClassifieds

Cut the dissection

By Daily Bruin Staff

Feb. 25, 1996 9:00 p.m.

Cut the dissection

Alternative methods are available to teach science

By Jonathan Balcombe

I will always remember the small, dead, squint-eyed, black and
pink piglet I purchased in a see-through plastic pouch for $9 from
a shelf at the back of the campus bookstore. I remember tying the
four tiny cloven hooves to the edge of the dissection tray with
rubber bands, and the animal lying there prostrate, splay-legged,
tongue protruding. I remember the first incision down the chest and
belly; the soft skin splitting open.

My pig was just one of some 6 million vertebrate animals killed
that year in the United States for use in dissections. This year
will be no different. New shipments of cats from the streets and
shelters, frogs from the marshes, dogfish from the gill nets and
fetal pigs from the slaughterhouse will arrive for general biology
or the comparative anatomy courses.

Dissecting trays will be pulled out of cupboards and slithery,
lifeless bodies will be plunked onto them. Sometime this spring or
fall, the smell of formaldehyde will permeate the biology halls as
the annual ritual of dissection is once again carried out.

In many physiology labs, too, the life will flicker and die out
from sentient creatures while students look on with mixed emotions.
Pithing probes and circular saws will invade the bodies of frogs
and turtles so that their still-moving body parts can be watched
and manipulated. Once again, animals will be made lifeless, both
literally and symbolically. Their bodies will be used and then
discarded.

I also remember asking myself if all of this is OK. Should an
animal die so that I can see exactly how a pancreas connects to a
small intestine? Does my education justify the gassing of a stray,
abandoned or lost cat; the "harvesting" of wild frogs or the
exsanguination (bleeding out) of a pregnant mother pig? Will this
exercise foster respect for the environment in my generation of
policy-makers? Is it possible to affirm life while extinguishing
it? I eventually answered, "No."

By the time I was a graduate student teaching biology labs, I
made sure my students gave thought to these matters and decided for
themselves whether they would dissect. Many of them wouldn’t. They
had to submit a statement to the course coordinator explaining
their objection to the exercise, and they had to study the
organisms using alternative materials and take the exam like all
the other students.

The conscientious objectors didn’t buy a pig, they didn’t
dissect and they did well on the exam. To this day, I find it
ironic that it is the student who chooses not to participate in the
destruction of an animal’s life who must justify his or her
position, when the converse would seem to make more sense.

If you are to take a course in which animals will be harmed,
you, too, should not be led to believe that you need do so to
become a good scientist. As a student and as a human being, you are
entitled to an education consistent with your sincere beliefs, and
there are many ways to learn animal structure and function that
don’t involve the termination of an animal’s life. Today, there is
an abundance of computer programs, CD-ROMs, videodiscs, models,
self-study modules, charts and manuals to help you learn without
harming any animals.

The Humane Society of the United States can provide you with a
list of a dozen published reports showing that students learn
anatomy and other biology lessons equally, or better, using
alternatives, than they do by dissecting animals or harming them in
other ways.

It is only by speaking out that you will make a difference. As
your college experience unfolds, invest in it with your conscience
as well as your mind.

If you believe it’s time for a change in how animals fit into
college education, do your part to bring about change. As Margaret
Mead once said: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only
thing that ever has."

Balcombe, Ph.D. is a biologist and associate director for
education with The Humane Society of the United States at 2100 L
Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., 20037.

If you are to take a course in which animals will be harmed,
you, too, should not be led to believe that you need do so to
become a good scientist.

Comments to [email protected]

Share this story:FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
COMMENTS
Featured Classifieds
More classifieds »
Related Posts