March 14, 2005
Anatomy and physiology classes dissect furry felines
Underneath Anatomy and Physiology teacher John Haigh's glistening scalpel lies a dead creature, one eye ajar, tongue sticking out and front legs stretched next to its face. Haigh's students squirm, smile and giggle nervously as he begins demonstrating the day's lesson: identifying various muscles in a dissected cat.
For almost the entire third quarter, students in Anatomy and Physiology classes will gain invaluable hands-on experience by painstakingly analyzing the insides of cats. During fourth period on Feb. 11, Haigh's students continue their dissections with varying degrees of enthusiasm, attempting to ignore the nauseating smell of preservative and diving headfirst into the intriguing world of feline analysis.
Gross…Awesome!
As Haigh demonstrates, senior Alyssa Marzullo and her group members don aprons, gloves and protective goggles. They remove their cat from a tightly secured bag and place it on their workbench. Nearby is a case of tools - assorted sharp, curved and oddly shaped devices straight out of a torture scene in a Bond movie. Before Marzullo has a chance to use the dissection gear, she shudders in disgust. "I already got cat stuff on my hands!" she says.
In the back corner, seniors Melissa Michel and Lane Alvarez are diligently removing tissue from their cat's lower torso to expose its muscles. Michel reluctantly cuts with scissors while Alvarez holds the cat in place. "I try to look at its body - I try not to look at its face," Michel says, snipping a flap of skin.
Alvarez deals with what he calls the "trauma" of cutting open a dead cat by cracking jokes. "This cat looks like my aunt's cat, and that one died. Maybe it's the same cat," he says with a wry smile. While Michel is taking a break, Alvarez toys with the cat's tongue. "It feels cool," he says.
Anatomy and Physiology teacher Leslie Van sees cat dissection humor like Alvarez's all the time - one of her groups named their cat Simba (after the Lion King character). Another student held his cat's front legs and performed an impromptu waltz as Chamber Choir singers serenaded a classmate on Valentine's Day.
Some students, like Michel and Alvarez's group mate, senior Meena Singh, prefer to stand back and observe the procedure. Although she cringes at the sight of the cat's exposed innards, she acknowledges the educational value of the dissection. "We're trying to find out something about cats," she says. "I know more than before about anatomy."
Van says that while some students have initial fears of dissecting cats, most become more engaged in dissection as the activity continues.
The great debate
Occasionally, Haigh and Van have students who reject cat dissection on moral grounds; Haigh even had a student withdraw from his class last year when she learned the dissection was in the curriculum.
Junior Mollie Segal, who owns five cats, refused to even consider taking anatomy classes because of her opposition to dissection. "I find it sadistic because it's disrespecting the dead," says Segal.
According to the American Anti-Vivisection Society, approximately 100,000 cats are dissected in classrooms across the country each year. Van attributes the popularity of cats over other commonly dissected animals to their conveniently small size, low price tag (about $50 each) and similar anatomy to humans. "Size-wise, price-wise and anatomically, cats make the most sense," says Van.
Jamie Aitchison, a spokeswoman for the National Anti-Vivisection Society (not to be confused with the American Anti-Vivisection Society), believes that animal dissection is wrong on not just moral grounds but social grounds as well. "Dissection desensitizes compassion towards animals. They're not here to be our playthings; they're here to spend their time on earth just like us humans," she says.
On the other hand, Dan James, vice president of business development at Carolina Biological Supply Company, which provides Blair with cats, says that efforts to stop dissection would not mean more cats are saved. "We get the cats from animal shelters in Mexico, already dead or the ones that they are going to put to sleep," says James. "It's not like any fewer animals are going to be killed if we stopped providing cats."
Unfortunately for animal rights advocates, Haigh and Van agree that cat dissections will continue in Anatomy and Physiology classes for the foreseeable future.
Singh, now seemingly over her qualms, endorses the dissections. "In the end, the reason we take this class is to learn about the body," she remarks. "What better way is there than to look inside?"
For almost the entire third quarter, students in Anatomy and Physiology classes will gain invaluable hands-on experience by painstakingly analyzing the insides of cats. During fourth period on Feb. 11, Haigh's students continue their dissections with varying degrees of enthusiasm, attempting to ignore the nauseating smell of preservative and diving headfirst into the intriguing world of feline analysis.
Gross…Awesome!
Anatomy students dissect their cat.
As Haigh demonstrates, senior Alyssa Marzullo and her group members don aprons, gloves and protective goggles. They remove their cat from a tightly secured bag and place it on their workbench. Nearby is a case of tools - assorted sharp, curved and oddly shaped devices straight out of a torture scene in a Bond movie. Before Marzullo has a chance to use the dissection gear, she shudders in disgust. "I already got cat stuff on my hands!" she says.
In the back corner, seniors Melissa Michel and Lane Alvarez are diligently removing tissue from their cat's lower torso to expose its muscles. Michel reluctantly cuts with scissors while Alvarez holds the cat in place. "I try to look at its body - I try not to look at its face," Michel says, snipping a flap of skin.
Alvarez deals with what he calls the "trauma" of cutting open a dead cat by cracking jokes. "This cat looks like my aunt's cat, and that one died. Maybe it's the same cat," he says with a wry smile. While Michel is taking a break, Alvarez toys with the cat's tongue. "It feels cool," he says.
Anatomy and Physiology teacher Leslie Van sees cat dissection humor like Alvarez's all the time - one of her groups named their cat Simba (after the Lion King character). Another student held his cat's front legs and performed an impromptu waltz as Chamber Choir singers serenaded a classmate on Valentine's Day.
Some students, like Michel and Alvarez's group mate, senior Meena Singh, prefer to stand back and observe the procedure. Although she cringes at the sight of the cat's exposed innards, she acknowledges the educational value of the dissection. "We're trying to find out something about cats," she says. "I know more than before about anatomy."
Van says that while some students have initial fears of dissecting cats, most become more engaged in dissection as the activity continues.
The great debate
Occasionally, Haigh and Van have students who reject cat dissection on moral grounds; Haigh even had a student withdraw from his class last year when she learned the dissection was in the curriculum.
Junior Mollie Segal, who owns five cats, refused to even consider taking anatomy classes because of her opposition to dissection. "I find it sadistic because it's disrespecting the dead," says Segal.
According to the American Anti-Vivisection Society, approximately 100,000 cats are dissected in classrooms across the country each year. Van attributes the popularity of cats over other commonly dissected animals to their conveniently small size, low price tag (about $50 each) and similar anatomy to humans. "Size-wise, price-wise and anatomically, cats make the most sense," says Van.
Jamie Aitchison, a spokeswoman for the National Anti-Vivisection Society (not to be confused with the American Anti-Vivisection Society), believes that animal dissection is wrong on not just moral grounds but social grounds as well. "Dissection desensitizes compassion towards animals. They're not here to be our playthings; they're here to spend their time on earth just like us humans," she says.
On the other hand, Dan James, vice president of business development at Carolina Biological Supply Company, which provides Blair with cats, says that efforts to stop dissection would not mean more cats are saved. "We get the cats from animal shelters in Mexico, already dead or the ones that they are going to put to sleep," says James. "It's not like any fewer animals are going to be killed if we stopped providing cats."
Unfortunately for animal rights advocates, Haigh and Van agree that cat dissections will continue in Anatomy and Physiology classes for the foreseeable future.
Singh, now seemingly over her qualms, endorses the dissections. "In the end, the reason we take this class is to learn about the body," she remarks. "What better way is there than to look inside?"
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Anyway, if the cat's already going to be dead, it doesn't really do any harm. It just puts the bodies to some good use before they're laid to rest. I'd give my body to science in a second if I thought it would do good for other people.
I defiantly refused dissection in high school bio and I let the whole staff there know why I felt that way. But here is more proof that many people are just disgusting.
Perhaps Ms. Long believes that we would be better off believing that the sun orbits the earth? After all, what kind of "horrible," "disgusting," immoral person believes in heliocentricity? So, we shouldn't bother to study the universe, we know what's right!
The only thing that's disgusting here is the stupid, anti-intellectual, anti-learning attitude expressed by people like Ms. Long.
Anatomy is an ELECTIVE! If you don't want to disect the stupid cats, don't take the class! Its not like the school is forcing us to take the class. These kids want to learn about anatomy---let em learn! Doctors can stomach that type of stuff, they need training somewhere! Its not like they are killing them, THEY ARE ALREADY DEAD!
cat, rat, frog...owl pellet whats the difference? they all smell the same.
(just joking, dont kill me cat lovers!)
I wouldn't do it though.
Dr. Deborah Tanzer
New York City
Tamara
but its fun too dicet a chicken and a cat
they should die
Whats worse is the desensitizing the teacher uses to ease the process of dissecting the animal. Cracking jokes, playing with the dead corpses. She forgets that this was once a living creature, and rather than show respect for the dead animal and teach the students about respecting another life, she uses it as a plaything.
More importantly, a feline is more than an animal. Many students have cats as pets and may even see them as part of their family.
Do we really want to teach students that its okay to be morally and emotionally dead to the idea of a once living creature being killed for a frivolous dissection assignment? I'd think the psychological effects should be considered moreso than the educational aspects.
Animals at animal shelters should not have to die because they don't have a home, unless they are suffering. Its not like the cats want to be disected.
So why don't you get someone dying of cancer? Or your 90 yeard old grandmother? Ever thought about that? These people will die anyway, right?
Oh I get, it's immoral to do that to humans, but animals are just free for us to do whatever we feel like to them.
Ever read about Descartes?
and to kasia have you ever been to a college anatomy class. i have one where all we do is dissect humans that have donated their bodies. without these generous offers how would i get the hands on experience that i need. morality has nothing to do with it, its just learning.