2010 Humane Student & Educator Awarded at National Animal Conference in DC & CRITICAL ALTERNATIVES

Editor’s Note: For students, would-be students, parents, and those interested, PLEASE refer to the end of the article for vital information on student rights with respect to refusing to dissect animals, free alternatives to animal dissection, reports, information, and legislation. If you have additional information to add, please let me know, thank you.

For Immediate Release, AAVS

Animalearn is pleased to announce the 2010 recipients of its annual Humane Student and Humane Educator of the Year Awards. On Friday, July 23, 2010, Animalearn honors Humane Student Mitch Goldsmith and Humane Educator Julie Shaeffer for their accomplishments on behalf of animals used in education. The awards will be presented at the Taking Action for Animals Conference Welcome Reception at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC.

Humane Student honoree, Mitch Goldsmith, is a Michigan State University (MSU) student and President of Students Promoting Animal Rights (SPAR). As President of SPAR, Mitch led a campus-wide effort to end the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine’s (CVM) terminal surgical training labs, in which dogs were used in invasive procedures and then killed following the end of the exercises. Sparked by Animalearn’s Dying to Learn report (below as well), Mitch engaged in dialogue with students, faculty, and administrators, arranging for Animalearn to make a presentation on campus about the report and alternatives. The Award recognizes Mitch’s perseverance and informed advocacy, which led to a stunning success. Ultimately, the MSU CVM announced that starting with the fall 2010 semester, the school will no longer teach students surgical skills in this way.

RELATED
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“Mitch is a perfect example of what an empowered student can do,” said AAVS Education Director Laura Ducceschi. “He put his convictions into action, sought out quality resources, constructively approached university officials, and made a difference for both MSU students and animals.”

Animalearn’s Humane Educator honoree is Julie Shaeffer, a biology teacher at Boulder High School in Boulder, Colorado. Julie demonstrated faithfulness to her ideals and persistence in her efforts to incorporate non-animal dissection alternatives and cruelty-free science into her classroom, despite facing opposition from school administrators and fellow faculty. Additionally, she developed a specialized biology curriculum that integrates alternatives borrowed from Animalearn’s The Science Bank, a humane science lending library.

“Not only did Julie demonstrate to students, faculty, and administrators that cruelty-free science is an effective alternative to animal dissection, but she also created a sound biology curriculum that integrates alternatives and helps students achieve excellence in science education,” said Ducceschi. “Through Julie’s tireless efforts, Animalearn can offer this curriculum to other biology educators to inspire them to make humane science a priority in their classroom.”

RELATED

• Dying to Learn, Exposing the Supply and Use of Dogs and Cats in Higher Education : http://www.dyingtolearn.org/
• animaLearn : http://www.animalearn.org
• American Anti-Vivisection Society : http://www.aavs.org
• The Science Bank, Alternatives to Animal Use in Education : http://nstasciencesupplyguide.com/company.php?id=45643&company=Animalearns+The+Science+Bank&term=

The Science Bank is the largest FREE library of humane science products in the U.S., offering over 450 innovative teaching tools for life science education. The Science Bank is operated by Animalearn, a program that assists educators in acquiring the latest technology for teaching anatomy, physiology, behavior, and ecology, without harming animals, themselves, or the Earth. The Science Bank loan program has been offering products to thousands of people for over a decade, and it is continually growing and expanding. Many of our CDs, DVDs, charts, and models are available in multiple quantities to outfit entire classrooms. Animalearn also provides humane education curricula and materials free of charge for educators and students. Animalearn’s The Science Bank can assist you in learning how to implement new teaching technology into your life science curriculum. Our inventory is continually growing, please contact us if you don’t see something that you need in our catalog.

I DON’T WANT TO DISSECT

Know your rights, Student Choice Laws K-12, College, University, Veterinary and Medical School: http://www.animalearn.org/studentCenter.php

Create a Student Choice Policy
http://www.animalearn.org/highSchoolStudentChoice.php

Download Dissection Alternatives
http://www.animalearn.org/sbDownloads.php

What you can do now – Take Action
http://www.dyingtolearn.org/takeaction.html

AltWeb, John Hopkins’ global clearinghouse for information on alternatives to animal testing

Dying To Learn

For those who doubt alternatives would be “effective”, countless professionals, experts, and others unquestionably know the FACT that animal testing is dangerous and ineffective, but due to its profitability (billions of dollars in mass-bred animals, grants, and funding) for suppliers and “researchers”, as well as the use of scare-tactics and misinformation, this FACT has been relentlessly opposed and concealed. Welcome to exposure, feel free to read a non-expert, layperson’s opinion (including subsequent facts and industry sources), as most of us are in that category, and we don’t have to be condescended to and deceived with complicated, scientific jargon meant to foster confusion rather than promote understanding: Pharmaceutical Roulette