Animal rights activists are using a new public serviceadvertisement to dissuade schools from continuing animal dissectionin science programs, which sometimes occurs at The University ofMemphis.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has created anadvertisement encouraging people to consider alternatives to animaldissection. The full page ad, which premieres in the March issue of"Teen Ink," features Jenna Morasca, winner of CBS's Survivor: TheAmazon, holding a frog in her hand below a caption that reads, "Weboth survived." As a zoology major at the University of Pittsburgh,Morasca refused to dissect an animal in her biology class and hergrade suffered as a result.
The campaign is specifically targeting elementary schools, highschools and undergraduate classes where basic research experimentsare performed that don't require the use of animals, said KristieStoick, PCRM research analyst.
Dissection was integrated into education during the 1920s to aidin studying biology, physiology, anatomy and the theory ofevolution. Approximately 6 million animals -- including mice, rats,worms, cats, rabbits, fetal pigs, birds, dogs and fish -- aredissected annually in U.S. schools, according to the PCRM Website.
Included on the site's list of schools using live animals inteaching are three medical schools in Tennessee: the MeharryMedical College School of Medicine in Nashville and the colleges ofmedicine at the University of Tennessee, Memphis and East TennesseeState University.
No courses in The U of M department of microbiology andmolecular sciences have animal dissection as part of the courses.Some faculty members practice animal dissections, but all researchis legal and government approved, said Steven Schwartzbach,microbiology and molecular cell sciences chair.
"All U of M research is conducted in accordance with federalregulations," he said. All experimental protocols must be approvedby a University committee, and the animals are under the care of aveterinarian."
The animals used by U of M biomedical engineering students arealso carefully monitored, said Robert Malkin, biomedicalengineering professor.
"We use animals as a last resort, and we make sure the animalnever experiences pain. And for every one experiment done on ananimal, 100 to 500,000 computer-simulated experiments are done,"Malkin said.
While The U of M Biology Department does include some animaldissection as part of department requirements, very few areperformed, said Jerry Wolff, department chair.
"We do very few dissections, in only two courses. In generalbiology students dissect frogs, and in comparative biology theydissect dogsharks, lampreys and cats," Wolff said.
Some U of M faculty members said most students acknowledgedissections as an important part of the learning process and wouldprefer if animals were used in research before humans.
Wolff said the amount of involvement varies considerably among Uof M students because the dissections are often groupendeavors.
"Students are graded on the knowledge gained from dissectionsand examining specimens, not participation," Wolff said. "So gradesbased on participation are not an issue."
