Massachusetts Doctors Urge Baystate to End Pig Use

Springfield drivers slowed down and stared. Physicians donning white coats joined nearly 40 other protestors at PCRM’s April demonstration against Baystate Medical Center’s use of pigs for trauma training.

The doctors presented a petition signed by Massachusetts physicians and residents urging a move to nonanimal methods. Trauma training at Baystate involves cutting into anesthetized pigs to practice emergency medical procedures. The animals are subjected to the trauma of confinement, shipping, preparation, and manipulation. After the training session, they are killed.

“Cutting into living animals is cruel, not to mention a substandard way to teach emergency procedures,” says Massachusetts physician Marge Peppercorn, M.D., who attended the demonstration. “These facilities should use human-centered methods for all trauma courses.”

Baystate owns the human-patient simulator that has been approved by the American College of Surgeons for this training. If the simulator were fully utilized, the institution could immediately replace the use of animals. Ninety-eight percent of U.S. and Canadian facilities providing trauma training exclusively use nonanimal education methods.

Ask Baystate to stop killing pigs PCRM.org/Baystate.