Pregnant Cats Are Being Dissected at This College. Urge Them to Stop!

The practice of dissecting frogs during biology classes in schools is not only pretty gross, it’s also seriously questionable. According to data, around 20 million animals are used throughout the U.S. every year for dissection and similar teaching purposes. And although many will argue that there are important educational benefits to learning about animals this way, through work on an actual specimen, it is without a doubt time to rethink this practice …  especially since we now, fortunately, have a number of alternative ways to teach students about anatomy, ones that do not require killing other living creatures.

A particularly disturbing case of dissecting practices has been recently brought to public attention. According to a petition on Care2, information and eyewitness footage obtained by PETA has shown that dissections are being carried out on pregnant cats at Santa Monica College!

This shocking news makes one debate once more and with even more fervency the acceptability of dissecting lessons. It is already common knowledge that not many students actually feel comfortable learning in that way and, luckily, they often have a choice to participate or not. Making students dissect animals like cats, let alone pregnant cats, starts to seem less and less like an education tool – and more like something that has the ability to desensitize and scar students.

Click here to sign the petition to urge Santa Monica College to cease cat dissections and use other, humane methods of educating its students!

Image source: Ivan Stoyanov/publicdomainpictures