First, Do No Harm to Animals

The

for the University of Illinois's vet school begins with a call to "benefit the animals, people, and environment" through "the promotion of animal health" and the "alleviation of animal suffering." Linnaea Stull, a second-year student, believed that the school's "dog labs" compromised this mission.

So Stull circulated a petition that called for an end to the labs, which taught physiology by, among other things, killing dogs. This year, the petition stressed the many alternative ways to teach the same information. When that didn't work, Stull went to the press. That did work.

Beliefnet's Michael Kress spoke with Stull about her successful campaign.

Michael Kress:

Students have submitted the same petition to the school every year for the past five years, at least. What changed this year?

Linnaea Stull:

This year, a group of students--eight different veterinary students from three different classes--got together and said, "We know other veterinary schools don't use these dog labs to teach physiology. We know there's another way."

We came up with over 200 alternative labs to fulfill the same learning objectives as these six physiology labs, and we presented them to the faculty. And at the same time, we also presented them with 28 different research studies on alternatives, showing their scientific validity, their educational value, and their cost-effectiveness. We just put together a huge packet of information for these people, who kept telling us, "Alternatives are not the way--we have to teach this with live animals."

They've never ever offered any alternative teaching methods for those students who had decided not to participate. The students would just not show up, and there was no other way for them to learn the material other than out of a book.

MK:

Can you describe alternate ways that this material can be taught?

LS:

There are thousands of different ways to teach physiology and to learn something from animals without killing them. You can learn it purely out of a book. There are videos, virtual-reality simulations that are used in different medical schools right now.

You can do an ultrasound of a dog's heart and watch the live pumping action of the heart, and when you're done the animal gets up and walks away. Some people are opposed that, too, but it's really not an invasive thing. It doesn't hurt them at all, and there are no lasting effects. We tried to use examples that are used at other veterinary schools, as far as some of the computer programs that are used.

MK:

The petition dealt with six teaching labs. Would you be against using animals for experiments that could further veterinary medicine and in the long run help large numbers of animals?

LS:

Nothing new was learned from these labs. I had a real objection to that because lives were being lost and nothing at all was being learned. My ethical perspective on, for example, medical research, still isn't formed. I haven't faced that very much in my own experiences. I haven't ever worked in a laboratory. I haven't seen how these animals are treated, if they actually suffer or anything like that. So, I really haven't formed a decision on that one yet.

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