More and more students - from elementary school to veterinary and medical school – are taking a stand against dissection.

Cut It Out!

Hearing a lot about youth violence? You can do something to help: Cut out dissection! Biology is the study of life – not death. Yet every year, 21 lakh rabbits, monkeys, frogs, dogs and other animals are killed and shipped off to schools to be used in classroom dissections. A single biology class can use hundreds of animals each year if students are forced to perform multiple dissections. In some elite public schools, students are required to dissect animals every single week during the academic year, to ‘perfect’ their skills!

What do dissections teach? Not much … except that it is OK to chop up animals. And it is not! According to a study published in Bioethics in India, many students ‘perform dissection without knowing the purpose’, and most of the animals used for classroom dissections are ‘irrelevant to practical life’.

Most students would use a humane option if they could: Interviews conducted with biology students from several schools in Delhi showed that as many as 99 per cent would choose alternatives to dissection if their schools offered them. Psychologist Dr Aruna Baroota has found that students who have been told to dissect animals have fainted, vomited or lost their appetites for days. Dr Baroota believes dissection leads to a disrespect for life and should be banned.

Schools that purchase animal bodies for dissection are paying for animals to be tortured and killed. It is that simple. Animals who are captured from their natural homes or are bred specifically for dissection suffer from being confined to cramped cages, inadequate food and care, inhumane conditions during transportation and cruel killing methods. In some experiments, live frogs are ‘pithed’ (their spinal chords are severed) and dissected by students; if the pithing is done incorrectly, the animals remain fully conscious while their bodies are being cut open.
It is disgusting, it is wrong and it is time for it to end. And you can fight it! It is easy, and it is your right: In 1997, the Delhi High Court ruled that every senior secondary student has the right to a humane alternative to dissection.

Thousands of students have done it, and you can, too. You may be the first person at your school to refuse, but there are probably other students who feel the same way! Express yourself and be a trend-setter, trail-blazer and animal hero.

You Do Not Let Anyone Tell You What to Do, So What If Your Class Requires Dissection?
1. Find out as early as possible – preferably a few months before the course – what you will be asked to do. Investigate: Find out what animals the school uses and who supplies them. You will be so angry that you will most likely not only exercise your right to refuse to dissect, but also demand that the class stop using animals entirely!

2. Meet with your teachers right away and tell them that you cannot participate in the dissection because of your ‘sincerely held moral beliefs about the sanctity of all life’, and ask for a non-animal alternative. Do not offer a detailed explanation, and do not get into an argument or try to defend your beliefs – you do not have to. State your position in writing, be calm and polite, and ask for a prompt response. Make it clear that observing other students dissect an animal is not an acceptable alternative – it is indirect participation in the dissection. Keep copies of all correspondence and detailed notes of conversations; take notes during any meetings.

3. Dissection has got to go, and there are now much more advanced ways to learn. Offer to research the alternatives and find those that satisfy the objectives of the course. Show that you are willing to spend an equivalent amount of time and effort learning the lesson using a humane alternative – anything from anatomically-correct models of human organs to sophisticated computer programmes. One popular alternative, the Compu Series, developed and sold by the Chennai-based Blue Cross, allows students to digitally dissect ‘Compufrogs’, ‘Compurats’ and even ‘Compuroaches’. For information, contact Blue Cross of India, Chennai, 1 Eldams Road, Chennai 600 018.

Other options include videos, slides and films detailing animal dissections (for information, contact Bio Visual Products, Zamistanpur, Hyderabad 540 048, or Bio Visual Products, 217 Cycle Market, Jhandewallan, New Delhi 110 055), as well as 3-D charts and models (contact Bharat Graphics, 194 Industrial Area Phase II, PB No. 633, Chandigarh 160 002).

A number of organisations, such as People for Animals, provide alternatives to students and schools.

4. If you are still told, ‘Dissect or fail’, proceed up the chain of command. Write to your school’s principal and school board, and ask your parents or guardians to write, too. If you are in junior college, write to the department head, then to the dean.

5. Let other students know how the school violates students’ rights and hurts animals. Get everyone on your side! Form a group to demand students’ right to a violence-free education. Write letters to the editor of the school or college newspaper or magazine and to local newspapers. Ask the student body to pass a resolution supporting your efforts. Circulate petitions among students, and gather signatures of support. Hold vigils and demonstrations and alert the media about your events (contact PETA for help). For more information about activism, click here.

You can always call PETA for help with your dissection dilemma! Call 022-26288180 to speak to a PETA rep today.

Sample Letters
Letter to Teacher (adapt to fit your situation)
[Date]
[Name of teacher]
[Department name (if in college)]
[School name]
[Address]

Dear [Name of teacher]:

I am enrolled in [name of class]. I have just learned that all students are required to participate in the dissection of a frog. I will be unable to participate in the dissection because of my sincerely held moral beliefs about the sanctity of all life.

Accordingly, I respectfully request that you provide me with an alternative that will not involve my direct or indirect participation in the dissection of any animal that has been killed for the purpose of a classroom dissection.
I would appreciate hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

[Your signature]

[Your name]
------------------------------------------------------------
Letter to the Editor of Your Local Paper (adapt for your situation)
[Date]
Letters to the Editor
[Name of newspaper]
[Address]

Dear Editor:

Animal dissection, which was first used in classrooms in the early part of last century, is still being used in some [name of school] classes. In recent years, dissection has been increasingly scrutinised. Experts have re-evaluated the educational worth and morality of cutting up animals to ‘see how they work’.

‘Dissections are outdated and reduce our sensitivities’, says Iqbal Malik, a member of a committee that surveyed secondary schools across India about their dissection policies. ‘Biology, which can be the most fascinating of all sciences, has been reduced to mundane mugging, dissections and trapping, killing and preserving different species.’

Compassionate students want to study biology without dissecting animals. Sophisticated computer simulations, videodiscs and models have been developed to meet the needs of these students. All the studies of this issue show that students who use alternatives perform as well or better than students who use dissection.

Biology is the study of life and should teach respect for life, not devalue it by treating living beings as disposable objects. By using humane teaching methods, instructors can teach science and ethics simultaneously.

Sincerely,

[Your signature]

[Your name]

Sample Dissection Alternatives Policy

How to Answer Common Arguments Against Alternatives to Dissection

You are just being squeamish.
Feeling that dissection is wrong has nothing to do with being afraid or squeamish; for many students, it is a violation of deeply-held principles. It is also OK to feel squeamish about doing something you find morally offensive.

If we make an exception for you, other students will claim that they have the right to be excluded from all sorts of requirements.
This does not address the issue at hand: the students’ right not to be forced to violate their beliefs as part of their education. There is no quota on how many people are allowed to exercise their rights, and you cannot take away rights just because a lot of people are exercising them.

Students are not qualified to determine whether or not dissection is a necessary part of the curriculum.
Students are entitled to speak up when asked to do something that violates their ethics. If they are ‘qualified’ enough to participate, they are ‘qualified’ enough to decide whether they object to participation.

Dissection would not be taught if it were not an important part of the curriculum.
Teaching techniques are constantly evolving and should be re-evaluated regularly. Countless students are educated every year at top schools without dissecting animals.

There is no substitute for hands-on experience.
Actually, there are many substitutes for hands-on experience. But using detailed models of animal anatomy and computer simulations such as ‘Compufrog’ does provide hands-on experience.

The student’s claim to be a conscientious objector is inconsistent; he/she eats meat, wears leather, eats dairy products, etc.
Religious freedom means that you can subscribe to any set of views. Sadly, there are plenty of meat-eating Hindus, but they are Hindus nonetheless and cannot be forced to do something else that they believe is forbidden by their religion. If a student believes that it is immoral to wear fur or dissect animals but OK to wear leather shoes, no one can dictate a different set of moral values to that student. Everyone has the right to draw the line where their conscience tells them to.

The school does not have enough money in its budget to purchase alternatives.
Many groups make alternatives available on loan to students who need them. And alternatives to dissection are more economical over time; many students can make use of one CD-ROM, for instance, but dissection requires that multiple animals be purchased time after time.