Group Offers Virtual Dissection Software to Combat Students' Lack of Compassion
For Immediate Release:
June 29, 2012
Contact:
Kaitlynn Kelly 202-483-7382
Costa Mesa, Calif. -- In the midst of an outcry over a number of Facebook photos showing Newport Harbor High School students who callously played with the mutilated bodies of cats used in a biology class—including posing with the corpses and placing one animal's decapitated head in a student's locker—PETA has fired off an urgent letter to David L. Brooks, president of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District's Board of Education, urging the district to eliminate cat dissection in its classrooms. To help facilitate this shift to a more modern and humane curriculum, PETA is offering to donate virtual dissection equipment, which has been shown to teach students better than animal dissection.
"Trying to teach kids science with mutilated animal bodies is cruel and ineffective—and as the incidents at Newport Harbor show, it can also foster callousness toward animals," says PETA Associate Director of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "PETA is standing by to help any and all schools make the transition to using vastly superior—and kinder—non-animal teaching methods."
The millions of cats and other animals who are used in school dissections come from biological supply houses, which breed some animals and obtain others from animal shelters or the wild—meaning that some cats used in biology classes may be families' lost animal companions. Comparative studies have repeatedly shown that non-animal teaching methods, such as interactive computer programs, are more effective at teaching biology than crude animal-based methods. These programs also save time and money and increase student confidence and satisfaction. The National Science Teachers Association endorses the use of modern non-animal methods as complete replacements for animal dissection.
To view a video demonstration of the virtual dissection software, please click here. For more information on non-animal methods for teaching anatomy, please visit PETA.org/Dissection.