NY Surgeon Calls for an End to Training on Animals

A week ago, a fantastic editorial titled "Animals Aren't For Our Practice" by a Schenectady surgeon appeared in an Albany newspaper. I didn't see it until today.

I know from firsthand experience what using animals in the classroom is like. When I was a plastic surgery resident at SUNY Downstate Medical School, it was common for schools to use live animals for a variety of purposes. In my senior year, I participated in a surgery course that used dogs. Each week, the dogs were subjected to a different operation, and like the pigs used in AMC's trauma training courses, the dogs were to be killed when the course ended. . . .

During this course, I witnessed the pain experienced by animals used in medical training. They suffer from transport, confinement, and preparation, and even with careful administration of anesthesia, it is possible for the animals to wake up during procedures. These classes cause the animals themselves extreme anxiety and suffering. But as I know from my experience, it can also be stressful and even traumatic for the human trainees.

Albany Med should immediately stop using live animals in trauma training — not only because it is inhumane, but because it is unnecessary. Even when I was in medical school decades ago, students were questioning whether it was necessary to practice procedures on live animals. In the surgery class using live dogs, I learned nothing I did not learn later and better in a more appropriate clinical setting.

Medical professionals must have a thorough understanding of human anatomy, and the anatomy of a dog or a pig is very different from that of a human. High-tech human patient simulators and other human-centered teaching methods allow students to learn how to treat acute trauma injuries on a model that duplicates human anatomy. With these superior alternatives, medical professionals can repeatedly practice critical emergency procedures without harming animals.

Read the rest here. And then go here and vote.