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We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.

Animal Defenders of Westchester
P.O. Box 205
Yonkers, NY 10704

Articles

Activism Unleashed
By Heather Moore

Cutting Out Dissection

Countless other students across the U.S. are taking action to help animals. Laurie Wolff of Clark County, Nev. even prompted the Clark County School District�the seventh largest in the country, with 277 schools �to enact a student choice policy letting students decide for themselves if they want to dissect animals or not.

Laurie, a straight "A" student, had refused to dissect an earthworm when she was in the 6th grade and was given a "C" for the assignment. Appalled by the injustice, she wrote letters to the principal, the superintendent, and the school board members, spoke with teachers and other students, and led a petition drive. Her hard work paid off two years later, in April of 2002, when the student choice policy was implemented.

Because of her ground-breaking achievement, Laurie was featured on CNN, CBS News, in The New York Times, and numerous other media outlets. After the new policy passed, she told the Las Vegas Sun that she wanted to change the rules before she was instructed to dissect again. "At a lot of high schools they cut up pigs, frogs, even cats," she said. "I figured the rules saying you have to dissect were probably even more strict there than in sixth grade, so I had better do something now."

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