Animal rights group dicusses MSU's practices
By Heather Guenther (Last updated: 11/11/09 11:43pm)A national organization is calling on MSU officials to consider alternatives to how the university teaches its veterinary students.
Representatives from Animalearn, a division of the nonprofit animal advocacy and educational organization American Anti-Vivisection Society, questioned MSU’s past practices of purchasing live animals from Class B animal dealers at a lecture Wednesday, but said the university is making progress. Students Promoting Animal Rights, or SPAR, hosted the event.
The group released a report in April detailing its analysis of public universities in 24 selected states based on information it received from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
A Class A animal dealer breeds animals, such as dogs, for a specific purpose. A Class B dealer can acquire animals from a variety sources, such as animal shelters or pounds, and sell them for educational purposes, Animalearn Director Laura Ducceschi said.
“A positive trend at MSU is that its purchases from Class B dealers appears to have ceased after 2006,” Ducceschi said.
College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Christopher Brown said officials have not purchased animals from a Class B dealer in about three years.
Students are offered alternatives to live surgeries and as technology improves, he believes MSU will be able to continue reducing the number of live dogs it purchases for educational purposes. Brown said he does not know the number of live dogs used in the college this year.
“For surgery and other related classes, we do offer an alternative for students who do not want to take part in the live classes and that involves taking some extra time in the clinic to gain those skills in the clinic which they would have picked up in the laboratory had they taken the classes,” Brown said. “In the last 20 years, we have gradually reduced the number of live animals used and adopted new technology.”
The lecture represented SPAR’s attempt to ask university officials to consider alternatives to the use of live animals for educational purposes, SPAR President Mitch Goldsmith said.
“We wanted to have the folks report their report and make that call one more time to the university to take these alternatives seriously,” Goldsmith said.
“We (were) hoping to sort of educate people in the community about the practices of the university in regards to the use of animals on campus and to hopefully get this topic the attention that it deserves.”
Students in the College of Veterinary Medicine use a majority of the animals in terminal surgeries — surgeries where the animal is not revived after anesthesia — Brown said.
“Many of the animals would have been scheduled to be euthanized had they not come here,” Brown said. “The animals are not recovered from euthanasia (after the procedures are finished).”
Arts and humanities junior Megan Spencer said although she is not a veterinary medicine student, she is concerned about the welfare of animals and universities’ dependence on live animals for teaching tools.
“I think the issue of animal rights, especially in this context, is really important and gets overlooked a lot,” Spencer said. “The arguments against (using live animals in education) need to get more well known.”
Nicholas Barbu, a second-year veterinary medicine student, said he came to Wednesday’s event to voice his concern about the use of alternatives in the clinics.
“I feel like with using alternatives, you miss out on a lot of important clinical skills you will not get otherwise,”
Barbu said.
More Info
11/12/09 12:38amwww.dyingtolearn.com
Here's a question
11/12/09 1:56amWould you trust someone who hasn’t operated on a person before, to operate on you?
These animal-rights activists are retarded. Should we go back to the days before surgery? What do you want to replace it with? Kitty chiropractors?
Marie
11/12/09 2:22amAs long as the animals are treated humanely and do not suffer, what’s the problem? Overpopulation ensures that they would be put down anyway. Might as well have something positive come out of it.
Terminal surgery is NOT vivisection.
student
11/12/09 2:53amWhat do these groups want? We are in an academic setting and everything is done for the sake of teaching future professionals and research.
These animals are obviously treated with respect. Furthermore, the same way nations use soldiers to protect from others it’s the same way these students deserve to learn the real way. I mean, its not like these dogs are in extinction or anything.
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Ag student
11/12/09 4:21pmThese animal right groups and their supporters are ridiculous.
When a new Veterinarian comes out of Vet school, they are expected to be able to perform surgeries on people’s pets, the pets that are attached to people that love them. If these vet students have never performed surgery on a live dog or cat before how are they expected to successfully complete a surgery on a live animal.
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Donna
11/12/09 9:27pmMSU is one of only 9 out of 28 vet schools who continue to do terminal surgery labs. Clearly those 19 vet schools find ‘alternatives’ to be more than acceptable.
EthicsVet
11/12/09 9:31pmThe animals killed in these terminal surgeries are beagles bred by dealers and sold to MSU and other schools just to be killed in these labs. They would NOT have been “euthanized anyway”.
Citizen
11/13/09 8:40amThe Class A animals are new lives produced for a purpose – not existing animals that would have been euthanized anyway, as are the Class B animals. The ethical thing to do is to humanely and respectfully use the Class B animals for non-recovery surgical practice. The benefits are a better learning experience for the future professional, a more worthwhile and humane end for the Class B animals, and fewer Class A animals produced needlessly for this purpose.
Future Vet Student
11/13/09 9:11amNo computer simulation will replace what true hands on practice can accomplish. Besides the fact that there are many things that can arrise in surgery that a computer will not simulate (mainly because even the vets don’t know it will happen) but you learn more from actually doing it. Yes in my anatomy class we learned about the omentum in sheep as being a fatty leaf that covers the vissera, but when you actually open up a sheep you can see/feel it and truly appreciate it and the function that it holds.
I like the comment that somebody said earlier, somebody has to be the first live patient. Do you want it to be your pet or an animal that was going to be euthanized?
Doc
11/13/09 10:37amWhat seems to be misunderstood in this comment stream is that humane alternatives in vet school are NOT computer simulations—-they are simply ethically sourced REAL animal cadavers and beneficial surgeries. They provide educational quality as good or better then terminal surgery on healthy animals. Vet schools across the country are doing it….why is MSU lagging behind?
dian
11/22/09 11:22amR U Kidding me?
I thought this was an institution of HIGHER LEARNING! My mistake! Anyone with an education KNOWS this is WRONG! MORALLY and every other way! If you want to “see, feel and touch” what it is like… then lets cut YOU open and then you will FEEL what it is like…
dian
11/22/09 11:27amIf THIS is the BEST you can do… then your *BEST isn’t good enough!! Go back to the Drawing Board!
Maybe you are not ready for HIGHER LEARNING. Maybe you should go to a Trade School or something where you can learn to work on engines or something else that you can tear apart!