University of Connecticut and University of Virginia Offer Cruelty-Free Curricula

At the start of 2004, PCRM assisted a University of Connecticut student in getting alternatives to animal dissection offered to students who ethically oppose the practice. PCRM’s research department contacted the student’s instructor and advisor, as well as the head of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department, explaining that humane alternatives such as interactive computer programs, 3-D models, and videotapes are being used by most U.S. medical schools. The student will be offered an alternative to the fetal pig dissection laboratory planned as part of a required course for biology majors.

With its February 2004 decision to end live dog laboratories, the University of Virginia School of Medicine is set to join Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and other prestigious institutions that have done away with live animal labs in favor of high-tech, cost-effective alternatives. In the past, about 100 healthy dogs died annually at UVA during these exercises.