Jennifer Watson, 11th grade

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Jennifer Watson, 11th grade Kenwood SHS,
Baltimore September 2002
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The Baltimore Sun, September 26, 2002

• Diane Goldian, Principal, Kenwood SHS
• "We have the CD ready to go, we have our plans
  in place, and we can deliver a good program.
• Douglas Neilson, chief communications officer,
  Baltimore County Public Schools
• "The school system will make sure that biology
  and anatomy teachers systemwide know they must
  offer a choice. And every student in Kenwood
  High's anatomy class will be given the option of
  using the CD-ROM.

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• 1998
• The University recognises that some students
  may have a conscientious belief which is in
  conflict with teaching and/or assessment
  practices in one or more units in which they
  enrol. The University shall endeavour to make
  reasonable accommodations to meet such beliefs.

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• 1999
• Murdoch was in a position to and should aim
  to conduct teaching that does not require animals
  to be killed specifically for this purpose by
  2005.
• 2000
• Murdochs first alternative veterinary surgical
  program 2 students granted alternatives to all
  the terminal surgeries - involving experience
  assisting with surgery and anesthesia in private
  clinics and animal shelters, and sterilizations
  of shelter animals. They gained 5 times as much
  surgical and anesthetic experience as their
  classmates, and performed 21 spays (female
  sterilizations).

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Humane Alternatives to Harmful Animal Use in
Education

• Preclinical Computer simulations, videos,
  plasticised specimens, models, ethically sourced
  cadavers, non-invasive self-experimentation
• Surgical Surgical simulators, ethically-sourced
  cadaver surgery, supervised clinical experience,
  animal shelter sterilisation programs

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Reasons for Use of Humane Alternatives

• Ethical considerations
• Legislative requirements
• Teaching efficacy
• Psychological impacts of harmful animal use
• Respecting student beliefs
• Economic advantages

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Ethical Considerations

• Numbers of animals used Close to six million
  vertebrates dissected annually in U.S. high
  schools alone.
• Sources Biological supply companies, Class B
  dealers (licensed animal brokers) - have used
  animal shelters, strays, "free to good home" ads.
• Biological supply companies
• Inhumane killing practices.
• Injection of still-living animals with
  formaldehyde-based preservatives.
• Numerous violations of the federal Animal Welfare
  Act.
• Adverse environmental impacts E.g., frog
  populations.

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Legislative Requirements

• Animal Welfare Act
• The fundamental federal law intended to protect
  animals.
• "animal any live or dead dog or cat or
  warm-blooded animal (excluding birds, mice or
  rats bred for research, and animals used for the
  production of food or fiber), used for research,
  teaching, testing, or that is a "pet."
• The principal investigator in an experiment or
  procedure is required to explore the use of
  humane alternatives. This would include teachers
  in charge of animal-based learning exercises.
• State animal protection legislation may also be
  applicable.

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Comparative Studies of Student Performance

• At least 28 studies covering all levels of
  education have demonstrated the superior or
  equivalent efficacy of alternative methods in
  imparting knowledge or clinical or surgical
  skills
• Balcombe, J. Accessed August 16th 1999.
  Comparative studies of dissection and other uses
  of animals in education. Online via www.hsus.org,
  Animals in Research, Animals in Education.

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• 1. Fowler, H.S. E.J. Brosius. 1968. A research
  study on the values gained from dissection of
  animals in secondary school biology. Science
  Education 52(2) 5557.
• High school students who watched films of animal
  dissections (earthworm, crayfish, frog, perch)
  demonstrated greater factual knowledge of these
  animals than did students who performed
  dissections on them.
• 2. Kinzie, M.B., R. Strauss J. Foss. 1993. The
  effects of an interactive dissection simulation
  on the performance and achievement of high school
  biology students. Journal of Research in Science
  Teaching 30(8) 9891000.
• Findings suggest that an interactive videodisc
  was at least as effective as actual dissection in
  promoting high school student learning of frog
  anatomy and dissection procedures.

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• 3. Lieb, M.J. 1985. Dissection A valuable
  motivational tool or a trauma to the high school
  student? Unpublished Thesis, Master of Education,
  National College of Education, Evanston,
  Illinois.
• Post-test scores were equivalent for high school
  students who dissected earthworms and those who
  received a classroom lecture on earthworm
  anatomy.
• 4. McCollum, T.L. 1987. The effect of animal
  dissections on student acquisition of knowledge
  of and attitudes toward the animals dissected.
  Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of
  Cincinnati.
• Approximately 175 high school biology students
  taught frog structure, function, and adaptation
  via lecture performed better on a post-test than
  did approximately 175 high school biology
  students taught by doing a frog dissection.

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• Strauss, R.T. and Kinzie, M.B. 1994. Student
  achievement and attitudes in a pilot study
  comparing an interactive videodisc simulation to
  conventional dissection. The American Biology
  Teacher 56(7) 398402.
• Two groups of high school students performed
  equally on a test following either animal
  dissection or interactive videodisc simulation.

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Other Advantages of Humane Alternatives

• Time savings
• Staff savings
• Cost savings
• Unlimited numbers of virtual animals
• Greater flexibility of learning

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Negative impacts of harmful animal use

• University of Illinois veterinary students,
  1999, re learning benefits of terminal first
  year physiology laboratories
• "It was difficult to get any great understanding
  of physiology because we worried most of the time
  about not having our dog bleed to death or die of
  anesthetic overdose before the experiment was
  over. In the end, what I learned about physiology
  (cardiology and respiratory physiology) I taught
  myself from the notes."
• most of us were too preoccupied with having
  to kill the dog that physiology wasn't
  concentrated on
• Nothing that was covered in those labs could
  not have been learned from a demo, or a video.
  The guilt I felt for participating outweighed all
  beneficial aspects of the experience.

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• The stress of the whole ordeal was worth
  nothing in the end. I studied from these books,
  not from my lab experience.
• During one lab, my group accidentally killed
  our dog with anesthesia overdose because of lack
  of experience and the impatient ill-given advice
  of a professor. The experience overshadowed the
  benefit gained by the first lab.
• Conclusions 59 believed the non-survival
  animal physiology labs were not "worth the
  resources used". Only 20 felt they gained
  "great benefit" in their understanding of
  physiology from the laboratories.

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Psychological Impacts of Harmful Animal Use

• Negative underlying message about intrinsic value
  of animals lives, development of a utilitarian
  view of animals.
• Risk of psychological trauma resulting in
  impairment of cognitive abilities, decreased
  learning, and loss of interest in the sciences -
  female students most commonly affected.
• Desensitization to suffering and killing.
• Diminished capacity for compassion and ethical
  decision making.

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Respecting Student Beliefs

• Legislative issues
• E.g. Safia Rubaii, University of Colorado School
  of Medicine, 1995 Sued for 95,000 after failing
  physiology because she refused to perform a
  required experiment at Colorado which involved
  giving a lethal injection to an anesthetized dog,
  and being forced to retake it at the Creighton
  University School of Medicine in Nebraska, where
  harmful animal use was not required.
• Eight states with student choice legislation or
  policies
• California, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine,
  New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island.
• Publicity issues

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Economic Advantages

• Costs of laboratory animals
• Purchase
• Transportation
• Housing
• Feeding
• Veterinary care
• Experimental anesthesia
• Euthanasia

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A Cost ComparisonAnimal Dissection vs. Humane
Alternatives

• Typical biology department over a three year
  period
• Animals dissected frog, fetal pig, cat and
  dogfish.
• 3 classes comprised of 30 students each, every
  pair of students dissects each species of animal
  once. Hence 45 frogs, 45 fetal pigs, 45 cats and
  45 dogfish needed annually, or 135 of each over a
  three year period.

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• Frog alternatives ScienceWorks Dissection Works
  Frog CD ROM, Ward's Frog Model (Female), Frog
  Dissectionogram Chart
• Fetal pig alternatives ScienceWorks Dissection
  Works Fetal Pig CD ROM (same CD as for frog),
  Ward's Fetal Pig Model, Ward's Fetal Pig
  Dissection Video
• Cat alternatives Neotek's 3D Cat Laboratory CD
  ROM, Ward's Pregnant Cat Model, Ward's Cat
  Dissection Video
• Dogfish alternatives The Media Center Dogfish
  Video, Ward's Pregnant Shark Model, Pictorial
  Anatomy of the Dogfish
• Dissection costs 11,239
• Alternatives costs
  7,574
• Cost saving of alternatives 3,665
• (Cadaver prices WARD's Biology Catalog 2002)

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Reasons for Use of Humane Alternatives

• Ethical considerations
• Legislative requirements
• Teaching efficacy
• Psychological impacts of harmful animal use
• Respecting student beliefs
• Economic advantages