Students at Newport Harbor High School in California openly mugged for
photographs with dead cats, posted them on Facebook, and solicited comments
from their friends in June 2012. The photographs were taken during a science
class dissection that uses cats obtained from biological suppliers.
One
or more children reportedly deposited a severed cat’s head in a student’s
locker. A photograph of a cat’s decapitated head was also posted on
Facebook. A detailed online conversation followed in which one student
suggested, presumably jokingly, that she had killed her own cat. Other
students joined in with other inappropriate comments.
PCRM wrote to
the president of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board of Education
and asked that the students involved be referred for psychological
evaluation, that the teacher be reprimanded and counseled, and that
classroom activities involving animals be suspended.
PCRM also wrote
to Facebook and requested the company remove any photographs or posts
involving abuse, cruelty, or callousness toward animals in the future, in
accordance with its graphic content policy, which states that “any
inappropriately graphic content will be removed when found on the site.
Sadistic displays of violence against people or animals, or depictions of
sexual assault, are prohibited.”
The
use of animals for science classroom dissection is not only cruel and
psychologically damaging, it is unnecessary for optimal science education.
In 2008, the National Association of Biology Teachers and the National
Science Teachers Association revised their position statements regarding the
use of animals in the classroom to acknowledge the value and endorse the use
of computer-based dissection programs for all levels of science education,
and to encourage science teachers to be prepared to provide those programs.
Earlier this year, the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society similarly
revised its position statement.
Learn more at
DissectionAlternatives.org.
Source, PCRM:http://pcrm.org/good-medicine/2012/autumn2012/cat-dissection-brings-out-worst-in-california
Subscription and copyright information
Go on to 9 Everyday Products You Didn't Know Had
Animal Ingredients
Return to December 26, 2012
Return to
Newsletter Directory
STAFF
(Click
on the link to see photos and bios)
Staff Editor and Contributor:
Ljbeane1@aol.com
Staff Contributor and Advisor:
CompassionAction@aol.com
Sled Dog Action Coalition:
www.helpsleddogs.org
Glickman37@aol.com
Staff Contributor:
myREBAdog@worldnet.att.net
Pawprints, Footprints & Animal Chatter:
SHORTIETEK@aol.com
We welcome your comments:
If you
would like to be removed from the email list, write UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject and mail to
Permission granted to post, reprint, forward or use any or all contents of newsletter, Animals In Print.
Credit Animals In Print, 
