http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-lopresti-goodman-animal-diss.artmay06,0,5966395.story
Hartford Courant: Students Shouldn't Have To Dissect Animals
Stacy Lopresti-Goodman
State senators should approve a bill that would allow students to opt out of classroom animal dissections. The measure previously won overwhelming support in the House by a vote of 114 to 32.
If passed by the Senate and signed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell, this bill will place Connecticut in line with 15 other states, including New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, that have passed laws or resolutions protecting students who have objections to harming animals. Instead, educators would provide these students with alternative non-animal assignments.
As a scientist and educator who believes strongly that non-animal teaching methods are educationally and ethically superior to animal use, I testified in favor of the bill during a March public hearing held by the General Assembly's Education Committee.
Most people would probably be surprised to learn that an estimated 20 million animals are used for educational purposes in the United States each year, with more than half being killed for use in classroom dissection alone. Millions of frogs, fish and earthworms are captured in the wild and killed for dissection, fetal pigs are cut from their mother's bodies after they've been slaughtered, and biological supply houses broker deals with animal shelters to purchase cats who are sold to schools to use for dissection.
Animal dissection is rooted in exploitation and cruelty. Research shows that some students at all levels of education object to using animals in dissection and other experiments, and forcing students to participate in these barbaric practices discourages some, especially females, from pursuing careers in science.
In states without dissection choice legislation, students are often compelled to participate in, or observe their peers engage in, behaviors they find ethically objectionable. This can be psychologically traumatic and hampers students' ability to effectively function and learn. Deterring any student from pursuing a career in science because of this kind of negative experience is a disservice to that student and to science more generally. It punishes compassion and perpetuates the myth that we must harm animals to advance science and educate students, which isn't true.
Studies published in peer-reviewed journals have repeatedly shown that the academic performances of students who use alternatives to animals — such as computer programs, clay modeling, DVDs and lifelike models — are as good as or better than their peers who use animals. These methods are also more enjoyable for students, and more cost- and time-efficient for educators than animal-based exercises.
Last year, in light of the growing body of evidence demonstrating the many benefits of non-animal alternatives, the National Science Teachers Association amended its position statements to recognize the educational acceptability of non-animal learning methods as replacements for animal dissection. The group also supports the right of students to be offered alternative assignments.
As someone who became aware at a young age of the injustice that animals face in laboratories and classrooms, I was fortunate that I was not required to experiment on animals and that my teachers were sensitive to this issue. Had I been forced to harm animals in order to pursue my degrees, I am confident that my personal and professional lives would have been drastically different.
We must teach students that science and compassion for animals are compatible. This legislation would accomplish this goal by ensuring that no student with ethical objections to harming animals would be forced to do so. It would also encourage educators and students to explore the modern, effective and humane learning methods available.
Given everything we know about the rich lives of animals, students should be learning that animals deserve to be treated with respect, not as disposable classroom assignments.
•Stacy Lopresti-Goodman is studying for her doctorate in perception, action and cognition in the Department of Psychology at the University of Connecticut.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Hartford Courant: Students Shouldn't Have To Dissect Animals
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Volunteer Opportunity @ the New Haven Animal Shelter
NH Animal Shelter website:
http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/CT74.html#volunteer
The NH Animal Shelter is hosting a volunteer orientation on Feb. 22 at 11:00 am- just show up at the shelter (no reservation needed).
If you have questions about what the orientation entails, you can email Delette at poomeister@hotmail.com.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Take action on 3 new CT bills related to animal experiments
Hello fellow CTers,
The National Antivivisection Society has created action alerts so that Connecticut residents can easily contact their State Reps to urge them to support three bills that will help save thousands of animals from being killed for experimentation:
ACT NOW!!!
HB5708- An Act Prohibiting the Practice of Dissection in the Classroom
This bill prohibits animal dissection in the State of Connecticut.
https://secure2.convio.net
HB 6120- Use of Validated Alternatives to the Use of Animals in Product Testing
This bill prohibits the use of animals for testing cosmetics, drugs and chemicals when federally-validated non-animal tests exist
https://secure2.convio.net
HB5794- Prohibiting the Use of Animals for Emergency Medical or Resuscitation Training Exercises
This bill would prohibit the use of animals in certain forms of medical training and require the use of non-animal methods
https://secure2.convio.net
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Help support bill to ban animal dissection in CT schools!
PLEASE CROSSPOST TO OTHERS IN CONNECTICUT
Hello fellow CT citizens,
You will be pleased to learn that HB 5708, An Act Prohibiting the Practice of Dissection in the Classroom, (http://cga.ct.gov/2009/TOB/H/2009HB-05708-R00-HB.htm), was recently introduced in the Connecticut General Assembly. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Education and we all need to show our support for this monumental legislation that will help save the lives of some of the more than 10 million animals a year who are killed for dissection, provide students with a humane, modern, effective science education and save the State valuable resources.
Please contact your own State Representative (You can locate them here: http://cga.ct.gov/maps/townlist.asp) and all of the members of the Committee on Education (see below) and urge them to support HB 5708. You can find a form letter to send below (Personalized letters are most effective)
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Gaffey@senatedems.ct.gov, Andrew.Fleischmann@cga.ct.gov, Tom.Reynolds@cga.ct.gov, Fonfara@senatedems.ct.gov, Marilyn.Giuliano@housegop.ct.gov, Sam.Caligiuri@cga.ct.gov, Terrie.Wood@housegop.ct.gov, Themis.Klarides@housegop.ct.gov, David.Labriola@housegop.ct.gov, Timothy.LeGeyt@housegop.ct.gov, Tony.Hwang@housegop.ct.gov,Toni.Boucher@cga.ct.gov,Patricia.Miller@cga.ct.gov, Christopher.Lyddy@cga.ct.gov,Joan.Lewis@cga.ct.gov, Jason.Bartlett@cga.ct.gov, Matthew.Conway@cga.ct.gov,Michelle.Cook@cga.ct.gov, Paul.Davis@cga.ct.gov, henry.genga@cga.ct.gov, Auden.Grogins@cga.ct.gov, Gail.Hamm@cga.ct.gov, Deborah.Heinrich@cga.ct.gov, maryanne.hornish@cga.ct.gov, Karen.Jarmoc@cga.ct.gov, Susan.Johnson@cga.ct.gov, Matthew.Lesser@cga.ct.gov, Douglas.McCrory@cga.ct.gov, Steve.Mikutel@cga.ct.gov, Sandy.Nafis@cga.ct.gov, McDonald@senatedems.ct.gov, Stillman@senatedems.ct.gov
FORM LETTER
Dear Members of the Education Committee (Or your State Rep):
As a concerned citizen, I am writing to urge you to support HB 5708, An Act Prohibiting the Practice of Dissection in the Classroom. Not only is it cruel to capture animals in the wild or breed them with the sole intention of killing them for classroom exercises, but non-animal alternative learning methods have repeatedly shown to be educationally superior to animal dissection and are more economical. Research also shows that many students of all ages oppose dissection and that exposing students to animal dissection fosters callousness towards animals and nature and even dissuades some from pursuing careers in science.
For all of these reasons, I urge you to support HB 5708. The futures of our kids, and animals, depends on it.
Sincerely,
NAME
ADDRESS
CITY
PHONE (optional)
Read more!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
HARTFORD MARATHON FOUNDATION and RINGLING BROTHERS CIRCUS . . . RUNNING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION
As activists and runners, we were disappointed to learn that the Hartford Marathon Foundation has chosen to support Ringling Brother’s Circus and their use of animals through sponsorship of the Red Nose Run. The Red Nose run is a public relations event created by Ringling Brother’s Circus to promote their business and counter the increasing public concern over abuse of animals in the circus.
Many of you are likely aware of recent and extensive media attention exposing the inherent cruelty of circus animal acts. In response to increased public awareness, legislative action in numerous states has focused on the abuse endured by captive animals such as tigers and elephants. We have come to realize that the exploitation and captivity of these amazing creatures are not only inexcusable, but that such treatment reflects the most base and cruel aspects of human conduct.
The wonder and awe with which we view these creatures come from the recognition that they are complex animals with desires and joys of their own. Elephants, like humans, are intelligent and social creatures that live their lives traveling in family groups. The ‘use’ of these animals for petty display and entertainment robs them of their natural existence and robs the children who view them of the notions of respect and compassion that we strive to instill. To date more than sixty municipalities in the US and Canada have banned circus animal acts.
Surely, there are more humane and educational opportunities for HMF to pursue as fundraisers for local groups and organizations. In a letter dated April 15th, 2008, we requested a meeting with HMF board members to express our concerns and offer detailed information regarding Ringling, its practices, and the lives of animals used for entertainment purposes.
We hope that HMF will grant our request.
Please take a few minutes of your time to contact Hartford Marathon Foundation and ask its board members to end sponsorship of the Red Nose Run and their support of animal exploitation.
the only species that
enjoys running free in the warmth of the sun.
Contact the Hartford Marathon Foundation at: info@hartfordmarathon.com
Board of Directors , 140 Hebron Avenue, Glastonbury, CT 06033 Tel: 860-652-8866
"All good things are wild, and free." Henry David Thoreau
For more information about the lives of circus animals, visit these sites (please note, CT for Animals does not necessarily endorse these sites or these organizations):
Born Free USA - associated with the Animal Protection Institute
Circuses.com - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Circuses - Humane Society of the United States
Mercy for Animals
Read more!
Monday, April 21, 2008
WWAIL 2008 Pt. II: Vivisection: As unscientific as it is cruel
Hundreds of millions of animals suffer slow, painful deaths at the hands of experimenters at Universities, hospitals and private institutions every year in the
- A 2007 article concluded that research has “demonstrated that animal experiments are insufficiently predictive of human outcomes to provide substantial benefits during the development of human clinical interventions, or in deriving human toxicity assessments.”
- A 2008 article stated that the successes claimed by proponents of animal experimentation are anecdotal and that sweeping statements about the benefits of animal experimentation are unfounded.
- A 2007 article published in the British Medical Journal reported that the “lack of concordance between animal experiments and clinical trials may be due to…the failure of animal models to adequately represent human disease.” Similarly, an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association in concluded that "patients and physicians should remain cautious about extrapolating the findings of prominent animal research to the care of human disease."
- The FDA reports that only 8% of all drugs progressing to human trials after demonstration of safety in animal studies will gain approval. Further, roughly 50% of these approved drugs will be withdrawn or receive black-box warning labels after showing side effects or toxicities not detected in animals.
- In a 2007 report commissioned by the EPA, the National Science Foundation's National Research Council (NRC) concluded, "Current [animal toxicity] tests...provide little information on modes and mechanisms of action...and little or no information for assessing variability in human susceptibility." The NRC concluded "that a transformative paradigm shift [toward non-animal test methods] is needed to achieve the design criteria set out in the committee's interim report:... (2) to reduce the cost and time of testing, (3) to use fewer animals and cause minimal suffering in the animals used, and (4) to develop a more robust scientific basis for assessing health effects." Based on these concerns, the NRC advocated for a new approach to toxicity testing based on exclusively "computational biology and a comprehensive array of in vitro tests based on human biology."
- Still unconvinced? Try here, here and here.
WWAIL Pt. 1: CT events for World Week for Animals in Labs
This week, Connecticut Activists will protest cruel experiments on mice, monkeys, cats, pigs and other animals at Yale University, the University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC) and Hartford Hospital in recognition of World Week for Animals in Laboratories, a global event intended to raise awareness about the suffering of hundreds of millions animals: Tuesday April 22 Thursday April 24 1:30 – 2:30 p.m., University of Click "read more" for further information about the suffering of animals at these institutions and for more information about how you can help. At Yale University, experimenter Marina Picciotto has received more than $15 million of taxpayer money since 1996 for experiments in which she forcibly exposes mice and rats to nicotine by injecting it into their abdomens, placing it directly into holes cut into their skulls or feeding them only water laced with the drug, forcing them to either drink it or die of dehydration (Addy and others 2007, Vieyra-Reyes and others 2008). The animals are then killed by decapitation while fully conscious and their brains are removed to study the effects of the drug exposure. Some of her studies involve hanging mice by their tails from paper clips supposedly to observe if exposure to nicotine effected anxiety and depression-like behaviors (Vieyra-Reyes and others 2008). In other studies by Yale experimenters, monkeys are captured in the wild, isolated in a laboratory, injected with antipsychotic drugs and killed to study their effects on the animals' brains (Elsworth and others 2007). Take action- Click here to help stop nicotine experiments on animals (link will be live after 1pm on 4/22) Elsworth JD, Jentsch JD, Morrow BA, Jacobs LM Jr, Luk SS, Burns KJ. Loftus WC, Malmierca MS, Müller-Doblies UU, Maxwell SS, Boppana VD, Mihalyo MA, McSorley SJ, Vella AT, Adler AJ, Wikel SK.
On any given day, there are 9,000 animals suffering inside of UCHC, including kittens who have plastic tubes forced down their throats, rats and cats who have holes drilled into their skulls (Loftus and others 2008) and mice who are locked in cages and have their entire bodies intentionally infested with ticks (Müller-Doblies and others 2007). UCHC is well-known for abusing animals in labs and in January 2008 was ordered to return $65K to the National Institutes of Health for more than 20 violations of animal welfare laws in a monkey laboratory.
Take action- Click here to help permanently end cruel training course at UCHC
Hartford Hospital
Each month, Hartford Hospital conducts a live animal trauma training course (Advanced Trauma Operative Management, or ATOM) in which pigs must suffer through fourteen penetrating injuries such as stab wounds to the abdomen and chest, stomach, inferior vena cava, and heart (Jacobs and others 2006). At the end of the one-day course, the pigs are killed. This month's course is on April 24th, the day of our protest.
Take action- Click here to help end cruel training course at Hartford Hospital
References
Addy NA, Fornasiero EF, Stevens TR, Taylor JR, Picciotto MR. Role of calcineurin in nicotine-mediated locomotor sensitization. J Neurosci. 2007 Aug 8;27(32):8571-80.
