Idaho State Ends Its Dog Lab Thanks to You and PCRM

November 9, 2008

Please write to Albany Medical Center to ask that they also cease murdering animals and instead use TraumaMan to teach Advanced Trauma Life Support.

Just seven days after PCRM launched its public effort to end the use of live dogs from a local animal shelter for Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) training at Idaho State University (ISU), the school announced it would end the practice! We couldn’t have done it without your calls, e-mails, and letters to the school’s president.

An Idaho State Journal article published yesterday stated that ISU “announced Friday it has suspended the use of live dogs . . .” In the future, the course will use “high-tech mannequins that simulate human functions.” PCRM’s campaign against ISU’s use of dogs sparked other media coverage in Pocatello, Boise, and elsewhere, raising awareness of this issue among people in Idaho and across the region.

Your swift work has helped end animal suffering and improve medical education in Idaho.

Now we need your help to do the same thing in New York. While over 90 percent of U.S. and Canadian facilities no longer use animals for ATLS training, Albany Medical Center (AMC) continues to use live pigs for these courses, despite the availability of nonanimal alternatives like the TraumaMan System from Simulab. Please e-mail, call, or write to AMC president and CEO James J. Barba and politely ask him to end animal use in the institution’s ATLS courses.

Being polite is the most effective way to help these animals. Send an automatic e-mail.

James J. BarbaPresident and CEOAlbany Medical Center43 New Scholar Ave., Mail Code 114Albany, NY 12208E-mail: barbaj (AT) mail (DOT) amc.eduPhone: 518-262-3125 (Ask to be connected to the president’s office.)

On Nov. 12, 2008, PCRM will file an official complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture citing the unlawful use of live animals by AMC. The complaint cites an ongoing 2007-2008 survey by PCRM, which has so far received responses from 193 U.S. facilities offering ATLS courses. The survey has found that 177 of those facilities (more than 90 percent) exclusively use nonanimal models for instruction. In addition, the vast majority of those 177 facilities exclusively use the TraumaMan System.

On Friday, Nov. 7, the Albany Times Union carried an article about our federal complaint.

Learn more about the TraumaMan System and SimMan. If you have any questions, please contact me at rmerkley (AT) pcrm (DOT) org or 202-686-2210, ext. 336. Thanks so much for your help!

Best regards, Ryan MerkleyResearch Program Coordinator