I research diseases and abnormalities on my own for my writing or just for pleasure, but after a day in anatomy and physiology lab, I decided it was not for me. Kids who were in this class with me will probably think I'm being immature or pathetic, but I can't do it. It wasn't because of blood or organs, it was because of where the creature we were dissecting came from. We were given cats to dissect. My problems with this lab are as follows:
- It was simply for exploratory purposes, no assignment to accompany it or goals. Just cut and stare. I feel these poor animals gave their lives for us to simply desecrate their bodies with no intellectual gain.
- I have three cats, and I assume these cats came from a lab or were bought from shelters. These cats were raised to be used for medical or cosmetic research or were in kill shelters and sold to lab companies for the purpose of being cut up. Were these cats abused or neglected during this process? The questionable origins make me not want to engage in this dissection. They were skinny, lacking a decent coat, and all looked as if they were screaming with mouth open, eyes open, and feet clenched, an animal put to sleep are in relaxed positions not tensed.
- Cats aren't as anatomically close to humans as other lab animals are. While pigs and rats deserve a respectable life as well, they are used more often for anatomical research. Rats are a common animal in research labs and would later be used if the students went into that field of research with their biology degree, and baby pigs, which often come from slaughter houses), have similarly shaped and placed anatomy compared to humans, so they could easily replace an expensive human cadaver while still teaching comparative anatomy.
- They were disposed of like garbage. It always bothers me when people throw their dead pets out with the trash (vet clinics included). My teacher mentioned how the janitors hated cleaning up the trash after these labs. Could you blame them? 10-12 screaming, dead cats in the trash can isn't a pleasant thing to come across. I feel that after these labs, these animals should be cremated (especially since they have been preserved with chemicals that will seep into the ground of a dump and cause havoc) by a special service. We do the lab once a year as anatomy 1 is offered only one semester, how much could it really cost to have them cremated?
I just feel that domesticated animals do not need to be used for testing, laboratory, or academic purposes. They aren't anatomically close to humans nor are they used properly and to their fullest in an academic setting. Unless this is amended, you will not find me in any medical school or research setting. I am not going to sacrifice the life of an animal that could be in a loving home to submit them to torture or to have them live out their life in a cage without a name. I will not raise an animal to kill it. I will not go against my own beliefs that an animal is blessed with a soul as we are. While my field of study is science, I cannot dilute myself into believing that we are devoid of a supernatural connection to the other side and that these experiments do not inflict pain and suffering onto an animal, the most helpless and innocent of creatures. The day I stood staring down at that poor cat, looking over its black and white spots and yellow eyes, I thought of concentration camps, people experiments on and waiting to die. Are these caged and neglected animals, born with only a number and file, any different? In good conscience, I cannot participate, I will not be the final stop for this creature, I will not take a way the last bit of dignity this creature has by destroying its body. I will not participate.
