Dissection: Lessons in Cruelty

Every year, millions of animals are dissected in elementary, secondary, and college science classes. Each animal who is cut open and discarded represents not only a life lost but also a part of a trail of animal abuse and environmental havoc.

Suppliers

Frogs are the most commonly dissected animals below the university level. Other species used include cats, mice, rats, worms, dogs, rabbits, fetal pigs, and fish. Some animals come from breeding facilities that cater to institutions and businesses that use animals in experiments, and other animals are caught in the wild. Some animals are also stolen or abandoned companion animals. A PETA undercover investigator at one of the nation’s largest suppliers of animals used for dissection was told by his supervisor that some of the cats killed there were companion animals who had “escaped” from their homes. Slaughterhouses and pet stores also sell animals and animal parts to biological supply houses. Even some pounds and animal shelters sell animals to biological supply companies, which in turn sell them to schools. Please see our factsheet on pound seizure for more information.

PETA investigators documented cases in which animals were removed from gas chambers and injected with formaldehyde without first being checked for vital signs, a violation of the Animal Welfare Act. Formaldehyde is a severely irritating caustic substance that causes a painful death. Investigators’ video footage documents incidences in which cats and rats were struggling during injection and employees were spitting on them. One rabbit, still alive after being gassed, tried to crawl out of a wheelbarrow full of water and dead rabbits. Employees laughed as a coworker held the rabbit’s head underwater and pulled him out just as death seemed near, repeating the process again and again until, bored with the “game,” the employee held the animal’s head underwater long enough to drown him.

Killing Compassion and Love for Science

Classroom dissection desensitizes students to the sanctity of life. Research has shown that a significant number of students at every educational level are uncomfortable with the use of animals in dissection and experimentation. Studies also suggest that exposing young people to animal dissection as “science” can foster a callousness toward animals and nature and even dissuade some from pursuing careers in science.(1,2,3)

Students don’t need to cut up animals to understand basic anatomy and physiology. Those who plan to go into a medical field would do better to study humans in a controlled and supervised setting, examine human cadavers, or use any of the many non-animal learning methods available, such as those provided by computer models and sophisticated simulators. This type of simulation-based education would more accurately reflect what students will encounter when they get to medical school, since more than 90 percent of U.S. medical schools have abandoned the use of animals in their standard curricula.(4) See our Alternatives to Dissection Factsheet.

Students Speak Up

Many students are taking a stand against dissection before it happens in their classes.

“You don’t learn anything about an animal by cutting it up,” said Laurie Wolff, a Las Vegas grade school student who successfully petitioned the Clark County School Board to draft a student-choice amendment, providing students with alternatives to dissection. “It’s a waste when there are so many other ways to learn about science without having to kill something first,” she added.(5) Baltimore student Jennifer Watson, who was taken out of an honors class when she asked for an alternative to cat dissection but was allowed back in after a protest prompted officials to reveal that she was entitled to an alternative, explained her actions simply: “I’ve loved animals my whole life. I was standing up for what I believe in.”(6) Ashley Curtis failed a lab exercise in her Minnesota school when she refused to come to class on the day when dissection was scheduled. She said, “I don’t think any animals should go through any suffering for education.”(7)

More than a dozen states, including Virginia and California, along with numerous school districts, have enacted laws or policies protecting students’ right not to dissect.(8)

Animals Used in Education

Each year in the U.S., an estimated 20 million animals—including mice, rats, cats, worms, frogs, rabbits, pigs, dogs, sheep, and fish—are used in cruel, outdated teaching exercises. Roughly half of them are killed and used for dissection; others are tormented while they're still alive in classroom biology experiments, psychology labs, and medical training.

These animals come from factory farms, biological supply companies that breed animals, or animal shelters—or they may have been kidnapped from their homes in the wild.

The tragedy of these animals' deaths is magnified by the fact that humane, non-animal learning methods, like sophisticated computer software, are available and have been shown to teach anatomy and complex biological processes as well as—or better than—cruel, archaic, and environmentally destructive animal labs, while instilling in students respect for animals' lives.

Dissection

At least 6 million vertebrate animals and approximately 6 million invertebrate animals are used for classroom dissection exercises annually in the U.S. PETA's investigations into biological supply companies, which sell animal bodies and parts, have uncovered acts of cruelty to animals, including the drowning of rabbits and the embalming of cats while they were still alive.

Biological supply houses breed animals like mice, rats, and rabbits; obtain fetal pigs from slaughterhouses that cut them from their mothers' bodies after they're killed; and trap or take other types of animals from a variety of locations.

For example, millions of frogs are captured in their natural habitats every year for dissection and experimentation, and the U.S. Department of the Interior has even stated that amphibian population declines are due in part to the use of these animals in dissection. Other animals, like the cats commonly dissected in biology courses, are obtained from animal shelters, pet stores, backyards, and the streets of the U.S. and Mexico.

Not only is animal dissection cruel, it's also outdated and inferior to more modern learning methods.

Animals in Classroom Experiments

In addition to the millions of animals used in dissection, millions of live mice, rabbits, rats, turtles, and other animals are tortured and killed in college- and university-level biology and psychology demonstrations. Turtles are smashed over the head with hammers and have holes drilled into their shells so that their hearts can be viewed and manipulated. Frogs' brains are destroyed when pins are stuck through their skulls so that students can cut them open and stimulate their exposed muscles with electricity. Mice, rabbits, and rats are also subjected to highly invasive, painful, and otherwise harmful procedures at the hands of students and professors, including electric shock, surgically induced brain damage, drug addiction, starvation, maternal deprivation, and more.

While there was a time when dissection and the use of live animals in the classroom went unchallenged, today's students are ready, willing, and able to stand up for animals and work with PETA to use humane non-animal methods that are not only more effective but also readily available.

Ethical Use of Animals in Experimentation
NSTA supports the decision of science teachers and their school or school district to integrate live animals and dissection in the K–12 classroom. Student interaction with organisms is one of the most effective methods of achieving many of the goals outlined in the National Science Education Standards (NSES). To this end, NSTA encourages educators and school officials to make informed decisions about the integration of animals in the science curriculum. NSTA opposes regulations or legislation that would eliminate an educator's decision-making role regarding dissection or would deny students the opportunity to learn through actual animal dissection.

NSTA supports each teacher's decision to use animal dissection activities that help students

  1. develop skills of observation and comparison,
  2. discover the shared and unique structures and processes of specific organisms, and
  3. develop a greater appreciation for the complexity of life.

It is essential that teachers establish specific and clear learning goals that enable them to appropriately plan and supervise the activities.
NSTA recognizes science educators as professionals. As such, they are in the best position to determine when to use—or not use—dissection activities. NSTA encourages teachers to be sensitive to students’ views regarding dissection, and to be aware of students’ beliefs and their right to make an informed decision about their participation. Teachers, especially those at the primary level, should be especially cognizant of students’ ages and maturity levels when deciding whether to use animal dissection. Should a teacher feel that an alternative to dissection would be a better option for a student or group of students, it is important that the teacher select a meaningful alternative. NSTA is aware of the continuing development and improvement of these alternatives.
Finally, NSTA calls for more research to determine the effectiveness of animal dissection activities and alternatives and the extent to which these activities should be integrated into the science curriculum.
Regarding the use of dissection activities in school classrooms, NSTA recommends that science teachers

  • Be prepared to present an alternative to dissection to students whose views or beliefs make this activity uncomfortable and difficult for them.
  • Conduct laboratory and dissection activities with consideration and appreciation for the organism.
  • Plan laboratory and dissection activities that are appropriate to the maturity level of the students.
  • Use prepared specimens purchased from a reputable and reliable scientific supply company. An acceptable alternative source for fresh specimens (i.e., squid, chicken wings) would be an FDA-inspected facility such as a butcher shop, fish market, or supermarket. The use of salvaged specimens does not reflect safe practice.
  • Conduct laboratory and dissection activities in a clean and organized work space with care and laboratory precision.
  • Conduct dissections in an appropriate physical environment with the proper ventilation, lighting, furniture, and equipment, including hot water and soap for cleanup.
  • Use personal safety protective equipment, such as gloves, chemical splash goggles, and aprons, all of which should be available and used by students, teachers, and visitors to the classroom.
  • Address such issues as allergies and squeamishness about dealing with animal specimens.
  • Ensure that the specimens are handled and disposed of properly.
  • Ensure that sharp instruments, such as scissors, scalpels, and other tools, are used safely and appropriately.
  • Base laboratory and dissection activities on carefully planned curriculum objectives.

—Adopted by the NSTA Board of Directors
June 2005
Revised: March 2008