Cats Tormented and Pigs Cut Into at University of Michigan

FROM People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)

ACTION

Contact University of Michigan officials and ask them to immediately replace the use of cats and pigs for these cruel training exercises with non-animal methods such as the modern human-patient simulators that are already in use at this university.

Sign an online petition

And/Or make direct contact:

Laurence B. Deitch
c/o Bodman LLP
1901 St. Antoine Street, 6th Floor
Ford Field Detroit, MI 48226
phone (313) 392-1055
email: ldeitch@umich.edu

Denise Ilitch
c/o Ambassador Magazine
2253 Cole Street
Birmingham, MI 48009
phone (248) 203-6789
email: dilitch@umich.edu

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

Documents recently obtained by PETA reveal that the University of Michigan's (UM) Survival Flight course for nurses has been tormenting live cats and pigs in cruel and deadly medical-training exercises, even though UM already uses state-of-the-art human-patient simulators to teach the same skills in other courses for nurses and physicians.

Cats—who in the past have been purchased by UM from animal shelters—have a hard plastic tube repeatedly forced down their delicate windpipes for intubation training and are frequently killed after the procedure. Pigs have holes cut into their limbs, throats, and chests and have needles stabbed into their bones and hearts for trauma training exercises before they are killed.

Studies by leading medical experts have repeatedly found that in addition to saving animals, the use of simulators is superior to the use of animal labs for preparing trainees to perform the lifesaving skills taught in UM's Survival Flight course. The Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association, which is the professional organization representing flight nurses, endorses the use of simulators to teach these skills as well. In addition, UM's student government has also approved a resolution strongly urging the school to end these inhumane and archaic procedures.

Thank you for everything you do for animals!