Ask Tulane's Dean to Stick With Nonanimal Methods in Trauma Training Courses

Originally Posted: February 23, 2013

Ask Tulane's Dean to Stick With Nonanimal Methods in Trauma Training Courses

FROM Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)

ACTION

Following up on this good news, Tulane University Stops Killing Pigs for Trauma Training, please take a minute to thank Tulane University School of Medicine senior vice president and dean Benjamin Sachs, M.B., for stopping the use of pigs in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) training and let him know that you want the medical center to continue its use of the TraumaMan System.

Here are some talking points:

• Thank you for halting the use of pigs in ATLS courses.

• Please continue to use nonanimal methods in Tulane’s ATLS courses.

• Human-based alternatives have been approved to teach these procedures by the American College of Surgeons (ACS).

• 98 percent of ATLS courses in the U.S. use the TraumaMan System or other human-based methods.

Dr. Benjamin P. Sachs
Senior Vice President and Dean, School of Medicine
The James R. Doty Distinguished Professor & Chair
1430 Tulane Ave
New Orleans, LA 70112
fax 504-988-2945 

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

Before switching to nonanimal methods, Tulane’s ATLS course involved mutilating live animals. Specifically, course participants:

1.  Made an incision between the pig’s ribs, through which a tube was inserted into the pig’s chest cavity;
2. IInserted a needle into the chest cavity;
3.  Inserted a needle into the abdominal cavity;
4.  Inserted a needle under the breast bone and into the pericardium (the sac surrounding the heart);
5.  At this point, the pig was killed and course participants were instructed to make incisions in the pig’s throat, into which a tube is inserted.

---

Thank you for everything you do for animals!

---

Other information you may find useful for your activism

Find area codes
Find zip codes