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Help Stop Live Pig Labs at University of Rochester!

Nearly two-thirds of all U.S. medical schools have eliminated the use of animals in their classrooms, but the University of Rochester (UR) remains one of 19 schools that continue to use this outdated and barbaric teaching method. UR uses live pigs to teach physiology and surgery classes.

Every year, nearly 100 students at UR operate on anesthetized hogs in an effort to get firsthand experience working with live tissue. They examine hemorrhages and variations in anatomy in preparation for what they might see in an emergency room. And after the experiments, the animals are killed. School officials defend this cruelty because of its supposed educational value. However, although pigs may share some of the same anatomical organs as humans, Dr. John Pippin, a medical advisor to the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, affirms that, "their biology is fundamentally different." For this reason, pigs and other animals may respond differently to drugs than humans do, and their tolerance for certain procedures may also be different.

"There is no possible legal or scientific excuse for these exercises, especially since the nation's best medical schools have done away with them," says Dr. Pippin. "Humane alternatives such as life-like patient simulators are more effective teaching tools." Indeed, at many schools, students learn with computer programs, interactive patient simulators, or by shadowing surgeons in the operating room. Just a few of the schools that use these methods are Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, and Yale.

Ultimately, the use of these animals for educational purposes is cruel and unnecessary. Pigs are sentient beings that form complex social groups, and strong bonds with their families. A newborn piglet will often run towards the sound of his mother's voice, and she will sing to him while he is nursing. Like humans, they value their lives and should not be used as 'tools' to teach a subject that can otherwise be taught with humane alternatives.

What You Can Do!
Please tell the University of Rochester that animal labs are cruel and outdated. Let them know that humane teaching methods are available and are used by many prestigious medical schools such as Harvard. David S. Guzick, M.D., Ph.D., Dean, University of Rochester School of Medicine, 601 Elmwood Ave, Box 706, Rochester, NY, 14642; phone: (585)275-0017; e-mail: david_guzick@urmc.rochester.edu.

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