PETA Calls on Fylde Coast Academy Trust to Cancel Animal Dissection Event

For Immediate Release:
1 November 2017

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

PETA CALLS ON FYLDE COAST ACADEMY TRUST TO CANCEL ANIMAL DISSECTION EVENT
Group Urges Trust’s Chair to Replace Horror-Show Animal Dissection With Modern Methods – for the Benefit of Students and Animals

Blackpool – After learning that Lancashire’s Fylde Coast Academy Trust plans to use a mobile autopsy laboratory to hold pig dissection classes for Fylde Coast PETA sent a letter this afternoon urging the chair of the trust to replace crude and archaic animal dissection with humane, non-animal teaching methods. To aid the transition, the group also shared a link to its new resource, “Humane Alternatives to Animal Dissection: A Practical Guide to Cutting Out Dissection“, which is packed with information on effective, technology-based anatomy education.

In the letter, PETA points out that using cutting-edge computer software and simulation tools saves substantial instructional time and money because they require virtually no set-up or messy clean-up and because many programs need only be purchased once and may then be used repeatedly. In addition, animal dissection is not a required skill for pursuing a career in human or veterinary medicine and can even send a damaging message to students interested in those fields that animals’ lives are disposable.

“Nearly every comparative study published has found that students who are taught both basic and advanced biological concepts using non-animal methods … learn as well as or better than their peers who dissect animals,” writes PETA Science Policy Adviser Dr Julia Baines. “If medical students can be trained in anatomy, surgery, physiology, and pharmacology without the use of animals, Fylde Coast Academy Trust students certainly can as well.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on” – notes that many of the organs dissected in classrooms come from animals in the meat industry, who are raised in cramped and filthy conditions, are often denied proper veterinary care, and may be killed while they’re still conscious. Non-animal teaching methods enable educators to discuss ethics and the value of other beings’ lives, helping students become compassionate, well-rounded young adults.

The letter is available here. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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