Physician-Led Protest, Petition, and Ads Urge UC to Stop Killing Animals for Surgery Training

CINCINNATI—Doctors are feeling green this St. Patrick's Day over a practice at the University of Cincinnati (UC) and are pulling out all the stops to make their message heard. Calling for an end to the use of live animals in the university’s surgery training program, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine—a national nonprofit with more than 17,000 doctor members—and local residents held a demonstration at the university this Thursday. Angie Eakin, MD, who attended the demonstration and is a resident of Columbus and a member of the Physicians Committee, started a petition to the dean of UC College of Medicine, Andrew Filak, Jr., MD. The petition, which has collected more than 12,000 names as of today, asks that the school improve medical training by replacing pigs with the same human-relevant methods used by hundreds of other programs. The physicians group also purchased ads on 10 bus benches across the city.

At UC, trainees practice invasive medical procedures on live pigs before the animals are killed, but the Physicians Committee’s survey of surgery residency programs shows that 76% of responsive hospitals and universities—including both Cleveland Clinic campuses, Wright State University, Jewish Hospital of Cincinnati, and OhioHealth Doctors Hospital in Columbus—do not use animals. Instead, these programs use educationally superior methods that accurately replicate human anatomy and physiology. The remarkably lifelike medical simulators can include layers of lifelike skin, fat, and muscle, replicate human anatomy, and simulate bleeding. UC could replace animals quickly using its state-of-the-art simulation center.

Across the U.S., many medical training programs have seen the pandemic as a wake-up call and transitioned from animals to simulators. Animal-based labs make social distancing impossible because veterinary staff and multiple trainees must share a room. In comparison, human-modeled simulators can allow physicians to practice on their own. Since March 2020, the University of Washington, Vanderbilt University, Cleveland Clinic, the Medical College of Georgia, and the University of Virginia have all replaced animals in medical training programs.

“Animal-based medical training is on its way out and for good reason,” said John Pippin, MD, FACC, director of academic affairs with the Physicians Committee. “The modern training methods used across the country benefit future patients and doctors alike, allowing for repeat practice, an anatomical configuration that replicates that of a human, and more.”

To interview Dr. Pippin or to see the locations of the bus bench ads, please contact Reina Pohl at 202-527-7326 or rpohl [at] pcrm.org.