As School District Faces Tax Increases and Teacher Layoffs, PETA Offers to Raise Funds With Ad Reminding Students of Right to Choose Not to Dissect
For Immediate Release:
May 12, 2011
Contact:
Kristin Richards 202-483-7382
Kutztown, Penn. — Today, PETA sent a letter to Nicholas Lazo Jr., superintendent of the Kutztown Area School District, with an offer that the group hopes he won't refuse: Allow PETA to place its ad promoting alternatives to dissection on Kutztown Area High School students' lockers, and in return, PETA will pay the district hard cash to help counter their budget crisis. The ad features an image of a rat and reads, "Stop School Violence. Do Your Homework—Choose Not to Dissect." If the school district prefers, PETA will provide it with free Digital Frog virtual-dissection software instead of cash.
"Encouraging students to cut up animals who often suffer a terrifying and painful death teaches them that the lives of others don't matter," says executive vice president of PETA—and mother—Tracy Reiman. "Our offer is a win-win solution: The school district would receive needed funding, and students would receive invaluable lessons in compassion, student rights, and good science."
Several species of animals—including rats, pigeons, and fetal pigs—are regularly dissected in Kutztown Area High School's biology classes. Each year in the U.S., an estimated 10 million animals are killed for dissection. Many come from biological supply houses, which breed some animals and obtain others from their homes in the wild. These companies also purchase stray, lost, and abandoned dogs and cats from animal shelters or from "bunchers"—dealers who illicitly obtain animals from backyards and streets in the U.S. and Mexico.
Non-animal teaching methods such as the use of interactive computer programs have been shown to teach biology as well as, and in many cases better than, animal-based methods. They also save time and money. The National Science Teachers Association's official position statement endorses the use of modern non-animal methods as replacements for animal dissection and encourages teachers to be responsive to students' ethical concerns.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
