Live Pigs Mutilated at Connecticut Hospital

Live pigs are unlawfully used in trauma training classes at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, says PCRM and a group of Connecticut physicians in a criminal complaint filed last month.

Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) training at Hartford Hospital involves cutting into live pigs and practicing emergency medical procedures. After the training session, the animals are killed. Although the animals are anesthetized during the procedures, they endure the trauma of confinement, shipping, preparation, manipulation, and death.

“The animal use at Hartford Hospital is inhumane and violates Connecticut’s anti-cruelty statute,” says local surgeon Marjorie Cramer, M.D., F.A.C.S., who co-signed the complaint. “Cutting into living animals is a substandard way to teach emergency procedures that will be performed on humans. Medical centers should use state-of-the-art, human-centered methods for all trauma courses.”

Hartford Hospital already owns a simulator validated for this training and could immediately replace its use of animals. Nonanimal education methods are exclusively used by 98 percent of ATLS programs.

To learn more about alternatives to animal use in ATLS programs, visit PCRM.org/ATLS.