Guest guest Posted September 24, 2002 Report Share Posted September 24, 2002 (Re spelling mistake, I didn;t spell check this article and I have fixed the paragaraph about the snake bite observations in dogs. I wrote deail and it should have been detail which is now fixed). Hi, I support the campaign to stop using live animals in the teaching of veterinary science in Australia and any other country where this practice occurs. (see the previous post by protectionglw and the link to http://www.thylazine.org/photogallery/knight.html regarding photos taken in a campaign by West Australian veterinary student Andrew Knight who asked for alternatives to vivisection in his vet course at Murdoch University in Western Australia). I recently spoke to a vet who graduated from the University of Queensland several years ago and she was still very traumatised. She said she was the only one in her class who openly protested against the use and killing of live healthy dogs and other animals in teaching vet science. She said she was marked down in her course for verbally protesting. She also said dogs used in her vet course were sourced from a pound (shelter). The University also picked up unwanted greyhounds to be used and killed by the students. Can you believe that some poor little dog who has been part of a family and who has either been abandoned or lost and never claimed from a pound would end up being deliberately killed by veterinary students? Can you imagine the faith and trust of these lost and abandoned dogs who have become used to trusting people being betrayed by vet students who thought nothing of operating on them and then killing them? Where does this foster compassion in vets? Who speaks out for these animals? Why are some students afraid to speak out? (One AR student told my correspondent to keep quiet because there was nothing anyone could do to stop the use of the live dogs and other animals and that she would only be penalised if she complained). Many greyhounds used in vet schools were often cared for by families till the dogs were no longer winning any more money on the race track. What a betrayal of trust to abandon these dogs to become tools of research at vet schools and other research institutions. The vet I spoke to said the University of Queensland vet school spokesperson said they had a very good vet school because the vets got to work on live animals and this gave them an advantage. My correspondent also stated she heard a dog continuously screaming in pain for about 5 minutes and no-one did anything. She said she went into the back room to see why the dog was screaming. She said the person with the dog said it was was being pumped full of a chemical (formaline?) to preserve it. When my correspondent asked why the dog was screaming, she was told it was being " a sook " (cowardly and weak minded colloqualism) over its injection. A chemical is apparently injected into some sedated dogs to help preserve them before they are killed. Keeping them alive during the process apparently allows the heart to pump the chemical evenly around the dog's body to preserve the body. This is information I obtained from a phone conversation with an ex-vet student and perhaps someone would like to verify it for me by visiting one of these vet schools and asking the tough questions that need to be asked about procedures involving the use of live health dogs. My vet friend also mentioned greyhounds being paraded before the students while dead (preserved) greyhounds and other dead dogs were lying upside down in bicycle rack type racks in full view of the newcomer live greyhound dogs to be butchered later during the vet course. I have heard a better way to teach vet science is to allow vet students to assist real vets in clinics and shelters to save lives, not to take lives. Some of the procedures taught to vet students are to operate on dogs, resusatate them and then euthanase them. Other dogs are repeatedly used for x-ray practice and one of the x-ray dogs who was taken home by a vet student to be a pet, had so many tumours it had to be put to sleep (annecdotal evidence indicates an overexposure to x-rays can contribute to cancer). My vet friend has been severely traumatised by the vet course she undertook. She was marked down for protesting. I believe the use of live healthy dogs to be killed during vet courses teaches a lack of compassion, caring and respect for animals by the Universities allowing such practices. Consider the fact that your own veterinary surgeon who professes to care for your dog or cat could have been one of the students who once participated in deliberately operating and killing live healthy dogs just like yours. Consider that your vet is probably one of those who may never have spoken a word against these barbaric practices. Obviously anything goes for some people whose ultimate aim is a well paying secure job and who care nothing for the morals and ethics of how they achieve that aim. I also heard of a paper given by one vet school lecturer who spoke of the effects of a snake bite observed in dogs in great detail. Were the dogs allowed to be bitten by snakes and then observed as the they shook and salivated and suffered so someone could write a paper? My veterinary friend could not understand the potential logic and cruelty in this. What a pity there are not a thousand Andrew Knights (Aussie consciencious objecter vet student) at every vet school to campaign against the use of live animals in teaching vet science . All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men [and women] to do nothing. --Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Kind regards, Marguerite Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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