Compassionate and Scientifically Sound Decision Will Save Animals, Cut Costs, and Improve Learning
For Immediate Release:
October 31, 2011
Contact:
Robbyn Brooks 202-483-7382
San Angelo, Texas -- After learning from PETA about modern, non-animal alternatives to cutting into live rabbits, turtles, rats, and frogs in its biology courses, Angelo State University (ASU) officials informed the group that the university's biology department "is no longer using any animals for dissection. The labs that previously relied on animals to demonstrate physiological systems have been replaced with interactive computer programs." To celebrate ASU's decision, PETA has offered to donate educational software to the university.
"ASU's decision is an enormous victory for the live rabbits, frogs, and other animals who otherwise would have been killed in these archaic exercises," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "And since studies have repeatedly shown that modern simulators are the most effective way to teach anatomy and physiology, ASU's kind decision will benefit its students too."
PETA's outreach to ASU was prompted by a letter from a concerned student who reported that dozens of live rats were dissected, that turtles had holes cut into their shells, and that rabbits had their chests cut open in crude physiology experiments. In one class, students induced "cranial stuns" in frogs by slamming the animals' heads against the laboratory tables; the frogs were then cut open. After all these exercises, the animals were killed.
For more information, please visit PETA's website StopAnimalTests.com.