Despite years of outreach efforts by PCRM, the Medical College of Wisconsin continues to use and kill pigs, frogs, rats, and rabbits in its first-year physiology course. The school killed more than 30 pigs in the latest class. But after a recent PCRM demonstration, the college committed to piloting a human-focused program as an alternative to live animal use.

On Feb. 18, outside the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), PCRM cardiologist John Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., led a demonstration urging MCW’s new dean, Jonathan Ravdin, M.D., to explore nonanimal alternatives.

Dr. Pippin, with a CBS reporter and cameraman, walked up to the MCW administration building to deliver a letter to Dr. Ravdin. A school representative accepted the letter and announced on camera that MCW has started a human-based pilot program in which physiology students observe cardiovascular patients—as an alternative to animal use.

More than 90 percent of United States medical schools now use effective nonanimal teaching tools instead of live animal labs. Learn more about the history of the MCW campaign at SaveMCWAnimals.org.