Doctors Urge University of Tennessee College of Medicine to End Live Animal Use

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.—On Apr. 19, physician Kerry Foley and Tennessee residents will be on site at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine (UTCOM) in Chattanooga to call for an end to the use of live pigs for medical training—and a switch to human-relevant methods. The Physicians Committee, a nonprofit representing more than 12,000 concerned doctors, is organizing the event.

WHAT:  A physician-led demonstration urging UTCOM Chattanooga to stop training on live animals in its emergency medicine residency program and other courses
WHO:  Kerry Foley, M.D., with the Physicians Committee, and Tennessee residents
WHEN:  Thursday, Apr. 19, 11 a.m. (E.D.T.)
WHERE:  East 3rd Street and Wiehl Street, in front of the UTCOM Chattanooga

The Physicians Committee is focused on ending UTCOM’s animal use in three areas of medical training:

• Emergency medicine resident training: Future physicians are told to make incisions into an animal’s throat and chest to insert tubes, cut into veins, and insert needles into the chest. Ninety-two percent of surveyed emergency residency programs in the United States and Canada (196 of 212) use human-based methods instead of live animals.
• Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS): Across the United States and Canada, 99 percent of the more than 300 ATLS courses use only human-based training methods. In UTCOM Chattanooga’s ATLS courses, trainees surgically open the veins of live animals and insert tubes and needles into the throat, abdomen, and chest.
• Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS): During this training course, breathing tubes are forced down the throats of small animals. The American Heart Association, which accredits PALS courses, has said that it “does not endorse the use of live animals for PALS training.”

The controversial training at UTCOM Chattanooga involves cutting into live pigs to practice procedural skills. After each training session, the animals are killed, but the Animal Welfare Act’s implementing regulations “require that a principal investigator—including course instructors—consider alternatives to procedures that may cause more than momentary or slight pain or distress to any animal used for research purposes.” 

“The University of Tennessee College of Medicine at Chattanooga is failing to keep its medical training up to date,” says John Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., Physicians Committee director of academic affairs. “Modern, human-based training methods reflect the fact that animals are simply not sufficient models for the human body.”

UTCOM Chattanooga already has a state-of-the-art facility—the Clinical Skills and Simulation Center—that could provide the resources to replace the use of animals.

For a copy of the federal complaint or to speak with a physician, please contact Reina Pohl at 202-527-7326 or RPohl [at] PCRM.org.