University of Michigan: Stop Using Live Pigs and Cats in Medical Training
Photo | Wikimedia Commons
Please click on and send the following two messages:
1. University of Michigan: Stop Using Live Pigs and Cats in Medical Training
2. Cats And Pigs Aren’t People. Must UM Nursing Students Hurt Them?
1. BACKGROUND | From Change
Started by: Stephanie Feldstein
The University of Michigan is one of only five percent of programs that still use live animals in emergency response training. Although U of M switched from dogs to simulators for similar trauma training courses, their Survival Flight training still uses pigs and cats for trainees to practice on.
U of M claims that training Survival Flight nurses “requires these procedures to be performed on live tissues.” However, the professional organization representing flight nurses, the Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association, disagrees. They not only endorse the use of simulators to teach these skills, but in the last year, 29 out of 30 of their own training courses used simulators instead of animals.
Tell the University of Michigan to stop using live animals in their Survival Flight Training.
MESSAGE TEXT
I recently learned on Change.org that the University of Michigan continues to use live pigs and cats in Survival Flight training. While I commend the University for switching over to simulators in other courses for nurses and physicians, the ongoing use of animals in this course is outdated and inhumane.
Although the University’s position has been that animals are necessary for this type of training, other institutions which offer the same training disagree. In fact, the Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association not only endorses the use of simulators to teach these skills, but in the last year, 29 out of 30 of their own training courses used simulators instead of animals.
While animals may provide live tissue for nurses to practice on, they do not represent the same anatomy as future patients and anesthetized animals do not respond to medical treatments in the same way live humans or simulators do. In addition, there are a limited number of times that procedures can be performed on animals, whereas simulators allow for exercises to be repeated until the trainees are fully proficient.
The University of Michigan Medical School has a reputation for innovation and academic excellence. I urge you to be among the “leaders and best” in embracing humane alternatives for Survival Flight training as well.
Thank you.
RELATED | Vivisection
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2. BACKGROUND | From Kinship Circle
Plainly, cats are not people. Neither are pigs…
But the University of Michigan thinks they’re close enough to train future nurses in a Survival Flight course. This hurts animals and people. Students learn skills that aren’t applicable. Size, location and texture of a cat’s organs differ considerably from those of a human. Would you want a cat-trained practitioner to push a tube down your windpipe? (Well, maybe if you are a cat).
UM nursing students forcibly intubate cats and stab needles into the hearts and bones of pigs. This would be absurd if not so tragic. UM already uses human-patient simulators in Advanced Trauma and Life Support courses. Anatomically advanced simulators, along with human cadaver systems and hospital rotations, prepare trainees for human encounters. Animal labs do not. Dr. Emad Aboud — co- inventor of a system that pumps specially dyed water into a human cadaver’s vessels and arteries — says animal-free models are more accurate, affordable and “the perfect alternative to live animals in surgical training.”
Politely insist that University of Michigan Survival Flight courses exclusively use animal-free teaching tools.
Send our automated petition or send your comments direct
MESSAGE TEXT
Dear Mr. Kolars, Mr. Lowell, Mr. Rush and Mr. Forrest:
I am deeply concerned about training methods used in a University of Michigan Survival Flight course for nurses. Intubation is practiced upon cats (acquired from animal shelters in the past) in repetitive drills that call for trainees to drive a rigid plastic tube down a cat’s fragile windpipe. Trauma response exercises require students to carve holes into the limbs, throats and chest of pigs. They jab needles into the pigs’ hearts and bones as well. All animals are killed.
This is not a matter of whether UM abides by basic care standards set forth in the U.S. Animal Welfare Act. It is simply that these animals do not need to undergo confinement, invasive procedures and death in the first place.
UM already uses more applicable and human-based simulators to teach the same skills in other courses. Please replace all live animal labs with human-focused technologies. The American College of Surgeons endorses TraumaMan System as a viable tool to practice lifesaving skills. The Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association also approves of animal-free simulators.
Anatomically advanced simulators, along with human cadaver systems and real-life hospital rotations, cut costs and improve proficiency. They allow for more in-depth feedback and assessment of student performance, while reducing dropout rates.
Conversely, animal models are inconsistent with the human experience. Incision pressure differs from species to species. Shape, angle, texture and elasticity of organs also vary between species.
Given the accessibility of capable and superior alternatives — there is no valid reason for live animal labs in any curriculum.
Thank you,
YOUR FULL NAME
ADDRESS, CITY, STATE
COUNTRY
Previous, please send if you have not already, thank you: Cats Tormented and Pigs Stabbed in the Heart at University of Michigan, please send one message
Related:
Our Compass 
science man do you look like a cat
no you do not, now why did you not
think of that?
science man are you porcine
i think not, does not take
rocket science to divine
that vivisection is cruel
and of no use
give it up and stop
being so obtuse
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Dear Mr. Kolars, Mr. Lowell, Mr. Rush and Mr. Forrest:
I am deeply concerned about training methods used in a University of Michigan Survival Flight course for nurses. Intubation is practiced upon cats (acquired from animal shelters in the past) in repetitive drills that call for trainees to drive a rigid plastic tube down a cat’s fragile windpipe. Trauma response exercises require students to carve holes into the limbs, throats and chest of pigs. They jab needles into the pigs’ hearts and bones as well. All animals are killed.
This is not a matter of whether UM abides by basic care standards set forth in the U.S. Animal Welfare Act. It is simply that these animals do not need to undergo confinement, invasive procedures and death in the first place.
UM already uses more applicable and human-based simulators to teach the same skills in other courses. Please replace all live animal labs with human-focused technologies. The American College of Surgeons endorses TraumaMan System as a viable tool to practice lifesaving skills. The Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association also approves of animal-free simulators.
Anatomically advanced simulators, along with human cadaver systems and real-life hospital rotations, cut costs and improve proficiency. They allow for more in-depth feedback and assessment of student performance, while reducing dropout rates.
Conversely, animal models are inconsistent with the human experience. Incision pressure differs from species to species. Shape, angle, texture and elasticity of organs also vary between species.
Given the accessibility of capable and superior alternatives — there is no valid reason for live animal labs in any curriculum.
Thank you,
Craig Stevens
1313 Mock Lane
Ventura, CA 93004
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Oh my god… who are the people that are able to be so desensitized.. How is it possible for anyone “normal” in our society, to be like this? Ok, i´m not saying somewhere in Africa, where they grew up in slaughter, but people that are a normal part of our society, to be able to conduct such work? It´s like watching that movie, The Experiment, where people become monsters because they can. I see the same in this video, just with animals. Or the NAZI regime.. Yes, in fact, it is easily compared to nazis. They all excused themselves by saying they were just following orders, doing their job, believing it was beneficial for their society. And mine, and everyone elses critic on them is that a human being, with reason and heart, the sense for good and bad, knows that doing what they did is wrong. They should just refuse following such orders, and a mass sadistic crime like nazistic genocide would never happen.
And what is happening now? The same.. it doesn´t matter if to people or animals, dehumanization of vital members of our society is happening, developing people that are able to ignore other subjects suffering is happening.. AND THAT IS THE REAL DANGER HERE.
i am afraid to know i live amongst such individuals… respected “researchers”, “scientists”.. bottom line, SADISTS.
Thank you.
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