The Humane Society of the United States, representing more than 7.3 million members and constituents, applauds the courage and compassion exhibited by student Leanne Hilgart for challenging her school’s requirement that she dissect a cat for her biology class (“Dissection debate cuts at curriculum,” March 9).
Dissection is rejected by a growing number of students and educators as doing more harm than good.
Every dissection has two victims–the animal and the student. Most dissected animals were killed for that purpose, and we have evidence of widespread inhumane and negligent handling of these animals, including cats.
But the most insidious and destructive lesson of dissection is that it teaches students that living, feeling animals are expendable and unworthy of our concern.
Superb alternatives to dissection abound, and many published studies find students learn life science better when dead animals are cut from–not in–the curriculum.
