Story by Rachael Osborne
Illustrations courtesy of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Last spring, Alina Smart sliced into a sheep's eyeball and cut up the insides of a baby pig. Smart, then a high school senior at Au Sable Valley Central School, enjoyed every minute of her college level biology class dissections. "I thought it was really interesting and educational," Smart says.

Some students, however, don't like it as much and are opting out of animal dissections in local classrooms, causing teachers to adopt new learning methods in the virtual vivisection world. About a dozen states have passed legislation requiring that teachers give students an alternative to hands-on animal dissection in the classroom, and in 1994, New York joined the list. The law states that if a student objects to the performance or witnessing of an animal dissection, their teacher must provide them with an alternative project without penalization for their decision.

Renee Rhino, a biology teacher at Au Sable Valley, says typically three or four students choose not to participate, but that last year about half of her class opted out. "Some students didn't want to participate for ethical reasons, but I think others just thought that it was gross," Rhino says. "I've been finding that more students are asking about the animals."

"I've been finding that more students are asking about the animals."

Shirley Butler, Plattsburgh Senior High School biology and microbiology teacher of twenty-five years, says the number of students who decide not to do dissections in her classes varies each year. "It ends up being the students who are so adamant about harming another life that are vegetarians and such who usually choose not to dissect," says Butler. "Some of the students that are the most squeamish are the guys."

Animal dissection, or vivisection, has been performed in high school classrooms for decades, and aims to teach students how various body systems work by examining internal organs of dead animals. During the course of the school year, Smart and her classmates dissected sheep eyes, a fetal pig, cow ovaries, a pig's uterus, and a sheep's heart.

Students are often concerned about how the animals got to the dissection table, and the thought that they may have been harmed or killed intentionally is usually the ethical basis for why they don't do dissections. Butler said the sheep hearts they dissect are discarded from butchers. Rhino agrees that this is a common practice. But because of increased computer technology in recent years, scientists have been able to develop many new programs aimed at virtual dissection. From computer simulations to enhanced vivisection software, high school students everywhere can virtually dissect the animal kingdom with the click of a mouse.

Though Au Sable Valley Central School does not yet have digital dissection software, Peru Central School recently purchased The Digital Frog, a computer
program that walks students through the process of dissecting various animals, such as frogs.

Charles Mitchell, science department chair at Peru Central, believes the program is a good alternative for students who don't want to do the hands-on dissections. He also says the program has helped cut costs in the school's biology department. With the school typically spending about $3,000 annually on its biology classes, a large chunk of the money has gone toward expensive hands-on dissection materials. "Budget-wise, it [The Digital Frog] makes a lot of sense," Mitchell says.

"It's really amazing how much the students really grasp from seeing a three-dimensional model of the heart, rather than one on a piece of paper."

For a one time fee of about $1,000, Peru Central School was able to put the program on every computer in the district. "We showed it to the sixth graders and they were like, 'Cool! Check it out,'" Mitchell exclaims.

Rhino, Butler, and Mitchell all provide students with alternatives to participating in the dissection labs. None of the schools have a written policy concerning vivisection, but the teachers are flexible in their own classrooms.

"Students get a grade on the lab, but I don't grade the actual dissecting," Rhino says.

In Rhino's college level biology class, students who don't participate are given a dissection-related assignment to complete in the library, while others dissect in the classroom. "We could step out of the room, or we didn't have to actually cut the animal open," Smart says, "Mrs. Rhino gave us the choice to leave."

Rhino is also currently looking into new software programs for virtual dissection for future classes. For her regents-level biology class, the dissection is optional, and students who opt out are given an alternative assignment. "It's just kind of a bonus at the end of the year," Rhino says.

At Plattsburgh Senior High School, Butler said students can work with dissectograms, which are laminated cards with color photos that walk them through the steps of the dissection as an alternative to hands-on vivisection.
       
Mitchell said that students at Peru Central School are given the choice of
participating in the hands-on procedure or doing the electronic version, The Digital Frog. "They aren't responsible for the hands-on procedure, but they are responsible for learning the information," Mitchell says.

"We could step out of the room, or we didn't have to actually cut the animal open."

Though all three teachers agree that virtual dissections are helpful in teaching biology—the "life science"—they still think that there is no substitute for doing a hands-on investigation.
       
"It's really amazing how much the students really grasp from seeing a
three-dimensional model of the heart, rather than one on a piece of paper," Butler says, "Every year, I have a lot of positive feedback from the students, and I've found that they really look forward to it."

For the students who wish to sit out on the slicing and dicing, digital programs are finally being made available in local schools. But for the majority of kids like Smart, hands-on dissection will continue in high school classrooms.

"Looking at the body systems up close really puts everything we learned all together," says Smart, "I got a lot out of it."

Do you think that students should be given alternatives to vivisection? Let us know!

Dissection Alternatives

Today, many sophisticated alternatives are available for classroom vivisections. Several states, including New York, have even adopted laws which enable students the right to opt out of participating in dissections. Some popular virtual alternatives include:

• The Digital Frog is an interactive CD-ROM that allows students to explore the frog through three modules—dissection, anatomy, and ecology.

• DissectionWorks comprises five interactive, computer-dissection simulations, including those of a frog, crayfish, perch, cat, and fetal pig.

• Body Works offers a computer program that explores the body’s systems, structure, and functions.

• CatLab walks students through an interactive, multimedia dissection of a cat.

•Froguts interactive CD-ROM features a 3-D frog manipulation, audio narration, quizzes, microscopes, injectors, x-rays, and a fetal pig lab.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, some frequently asked questions about dissection include:

How many animals are dissected?

A reasonable estimate is that about six million vertebrate animals are dissected yearly in U.S. high schools alone, with an additional, unknown number used in colleges, middle and elementary schools. The number of invertebrate animals dissected is probably comparable to that of vertebrates.

What species are used?

The most commonly dissected vertebrates are frogs, fetal pigs and cats. Other vertebrates used in dissection include dogfish sharks, perch, rats, pigeons, salamanders, rabbits, mice, turtles, snakes, mink, foxes, and bats. Invertebrates used in dissection include crayfish, grasshoppers, earthworms, clams, sea stars, squid, sea urchins, and cockroaches.

Where do the animals used in dissection come from? Aren't most of the animals used in dissection captive-reared?

No. Frogs, spiny dogfish (sharks), mudpuppies and other salamanders, birds, snakes, turtles, fish, and most invertebrates used in dissection are predominantly taken from the wild.

Fetal pigs are by-products of the meat industry, so what's wrong with using them?

Many students object to using fetal pigs because of their concern for the treatment of animals raised for human consumption. Almost all of the 97 million pigs slaughtered annually for human consumption in the United States are raised in crowded, confined conditions, where they are deprived of space, fresh air, and fresh forage for the duration of their shortened lives. Many also have their tails cut off and their teeth excised as piglets. The fetuses that end up in the dissection tray are taken from pregnant sows at the slaughterhouse.

What states have dissection laws, resolutions or policies?

The following states currently have laws upholding a student's right to choose humane alternatives to dissection without being penalized: Florida, California, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Illinois, Virginia and Oregon. Maine has a similar statewide policy, and Louisiana passed a similar resolution in 1992. In Maryland, school boards are required to include information on available alternatives in their course listings. Many schools and school boards have independently enacted student-choice policies. Student-choice legislation is pending in Michigan, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Within the past seven years, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington each attempted to adopt student-choice legislation but were unsuccessful.