Urge UMMC to Stop Abusing Pigs in Student Labs

Please click on and sign/send: Urge the University of Mississippi Medical Center to Stop Abusing Pigs in Student Labs

From: Farm Sanctuary

Background

Farm Sanctuary has been supporting efforts to end the cruel use of farm animals in medical training – an outdated and unnecessary practice that only a handful of medical facilities have yet to discontinue. The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) is one of those remaining schools and continues to subject live pigs to abuse in their student labs.

Instead of being recognized as the living, feeling individuals that they are, the pigs used in UMMC’s medical student physiology labs are treated like inanimate pieces of medical training equipment. Students place catheters in the arteries and veins of these animals, block their arteries, and inject them with drugs. The pigs’ chest cavities are then opened and their hearts are massaged, before they are killed.

Just this month, these cruel lab sessions are scheduled to take place seven times and will result in the deaths of more than 30 pigs. We can stop this abuse. As of now, UMMC is one of only seven medical schools in the U.S. and Canada still using live animals for training, despite the fact that the school already has state-of-the-art simulation centers which could provide more humane non-animal training methods.

You Can Help

Using the form HERE, please send a quick message to UMMC School of Medicine Dean Dr. James Keeton urging him to extend compassion to animals and end the use of live pigs in the institution’s physiology labs now.

For maximum impact, please personalize your message with your own words, or use the alternative message below.


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Message Text

I am writing to ask that you immediately end the use of live pigs in the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) School of Medicine’s physiology labs. Subjecting live animals to the procedures you carry out in these classes is not only cruel, but it is also unnecessary and outdated. UMMC is one of only seven institutions still using live animals in medical training, and I urge you to join others who have made the switch to more humane methods.

Pigs are sensitive, social animals who should not be treated like pieces of medical training equipment. UMMC already has a state-of-the-art simulation center that can easily provide non-animal training methods, so there is no justification for the continued use of live animals. Please make the compassionate choice and end this cruel and unnecessary practice now.

Alternative Text

I am disturbed after discovering that live pigs are subjected to mutilating experiments for the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) School of Medicine’s physiology labs, a practice that inflicts immense suffering upon them.  To expose them to this archaic method of training is alarming.   In a recently-conducted survey, it has been determined that in greater than 95% of similar programs, the TraumaMan System has been utilized (PCRM).  The TraumaMan System has been proven a superior model to the live animal “model”, and I fear any student not trained on the most advanced method will have a diminished learning experience. This should be concerning to any potential patient.

Additionally, since animals cannot be substituted for human beings, subjecting them to this exploitive process reflects a blatant disregard for life; how can we teach our future medical professionals ethics while enforcing a course that maims and kills live, sentient beings?  This represents a conflict of interest as well as a contradiction in both morals and actions: if non-human animals are deemed similar enough to humans physiologically, then you must acknowledge that, as sentient beings, they should not be exploited and killed either.  Any other conclusion would be considered a discord and would serve as a detriment to the learning process, especially in such a critical field of study.

It would be regrettable not being able to recommend your fine institution; however, because I value the most sophisticated and innovative learning techniques, it would be remiss of me to consider UMMC based on your reliance of such an obsolete method of study. As such, I respectfully ask that you please accept the superior method of study, the TraumaMan or other non-exploitive system, for your university and students, and make yours an institution of credibility and honor.

I know that your time is limited, and I want to thank you for your attention and consideration.

NAME|ADDRESS

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to you who chose to torture
and vivisect
your dirty secret to protect
do you not know
god watches you
as this cruelty
you continue to do
no medical findings
to be made here
just bloodshed and death
this is all too clear
find alternatives
all you have to do
is look
live and let live
it is in The Book!!!!

Karen Lyons Kalmenson