[zee_changos]

I didn't know about this until just now. A friend of mine [nursing student] posted a fb status. This is the conversation.

His Status: I've always heard that to test products animals are sacrificed, meaning they will show the results, which we know as side-effects, by experiencing it themselves. These can be anything from a rash to a full-blown heart attack. Never really thought about it, but it's never good to see it happen - not even in a class lab. Innocents don't deserve to die from an intentional heart attack.

Me: You killed animals in your lab?

Him: the experiment was to induce metabolism to go up, showing the effects what happens when you make the thyroid/parathyroid produce more hormones to increase metabolism. professors already gave them the drug (don't know when), us students were just testing to see how much air they were breathing. so yes, i guess in a way the experiment was indirectly killing

Me: Were you using mice? And do all the nursing classes do the same thing?

Him: Yep mice, its for physiology so most science majors i guess. Idk though, this is the only class I ever ran into so far that had animals in it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My question is, can't these classes go about without using live animals? I'd like to e-mail the professor but first I want to know if there are any alternatives I could suggest or something. Any advice?

 

[silva]

Physicians Commitee For Responible Medicine--
http://www.pcrm.org/resch/

Advocates of vegan lifestyle and active opposition to animal testing and research. While you're there you can add your voice to your senators on various issues. Maybe your school is listed.
Animal testing is done more for liability than for any real need.

 

[Irizary]

Quote:

Originally Posted by silva

Animal testing is done more for liability than for any real need.

The example given was not for liability reasons, and not government mandated. It was just for students to see a heart attack or other effect of a drug. This wasn't a research experiment but a demonstration.

Alternatives to this one? Read a book, or watch a video of someone having a heart attack or other effect of increased hormone production. There was no need at all for any animal to die for that class.

I'm scared to have any health professional who thinks that's o.k. take care of me. I think that shows a kind of sociopathic indifference to suffering.

 

[AddieB]

I'm really surprised they're having the nursing students do this. There is absolutely NO reason for it.

 

[peace]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Irizary

The example given was not for liability reasons, and not government mandated. It was just for students to see a heart attack or other effect of a drug. This wasn't a research experiment but a demonstration.

Alternatives to this one? Read a book, or watch a video of someone having a heart attack or other effect of increased hormone production. There was no need at all for any animal to die for that class.

I'm scared to have any health professional who thinks that's o.k. take care of me. I think that shows a kind of sociopathic indifference to suffering.

Agreed. Vivisection is also extremely common at colleges and universities. Nearly all schools, large or small, engage in it in some form or another.

Quote:

I'm really surprised they're having the nursing students do this. There is absolutely NO reason for it.

Another fairly common exercise in nursing training is teaching intubation procedures using live cats and kittens. Some schools are now using human dummies for this purpose.

 

[AddieB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by peace

Another fairly common exercise in nursing training is teaching intubation procedures using live cats and kittens. Some schools are now using human dummies for this purpose.

I guess I only know two people who recently went through nursing school and neither of them had to do this, so I assumed this was uncommon. Really disappointing... Just no need at all for the use of animals...

 

[Critter]

Nursing students? WTF. My Mum has been teaching nursing for about 5 years now and would NEVER make her students to anything like this, because they don't need to. All of her students go on to be professional nurses in the industry without having to kill innocent mice. This is ridiculous.

 

[zee_changos]

Yep, pretty sad.

I've always heard some psychology students in graduate school decapitate unconscious mice to look at their brain activity or something like that. It's so unnecessary.

 

[Rattie]

That's really sad. A friend of mine who is a big animal lover dropped out of vet school over something similar. She couldn't stand killing animals to learn to cure them.