Hard-Fought Victory for Animals at Medical College of Wisconsin
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org
FROM
Physicians Committee
March 2010
At the end of February, 2010, a Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) representative announced that
the college has permanently ended the use of pigs in a cardiovascular lab that
once used dogs. Instead, students will observe human patients and use computer
simulation in the first-year physiology course. The college first piloted this
human- and computer-based program after a February 2009 PCRM demonstration at
MCW.
Hundreds of demonstrators braving frigid Wisconsin winters. Tens of thousands
of e-mails, letters, and phone calls from PCRM members and supporters.
Billboards on busy Wisconsin highways. After years of efforts like these by PCRM
and its members, the Medical College of Wisconsin finally announced it has
stopped using pigs in its first-year physiology course and likely stopped using
frogs, rats, and rabbits.
Last week, a Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) representative announced that
the college has permanently ended the use of pigs in a cardiovascular lab that
once used dogs. Instead, students will observe human patients and use computer
simulation in the first-year physiology course. The college first piloted this
human- and computer-based program after a February 2009 PCRM demonstration at
MCW.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Inside Higher Ed both covered PCRM’s role
in MCW’s recent decision. The campaign has also received extensive media
coverage over the past several years.
MCW used rabbits, frogs, and rats in other physiology labs as recently as
January. But a school spokesperson says these small animal labs are under review
and may not be offered next year.
“We're delighted they have come as far as they have,” said PCRM senior
medical and research adviser John J. Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C. “What we don't
understand is why they don't get rid of their other animal labs, which are
equally useless.”
Following are a few of the milestones that led to this recent victory:
- February 2006: PCRM sends letters to MCW’s leadership explaining the
benefits of replacing animal use for physiology teaching and asking MCW to
incorporate this change into its curriculum.
- March 2006: PCRM sends a letter to MCW’s Institutional Animal Care and Use
Committee (IACUC) chair requesting that the oversight body deny the use of
animals to teach physiology due to the availability of equivalent or
superior nonanimal alternatives, as required by the federal Animal Welfare
Act (AWA).
- April 2006: PCRM files a complaint with the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, requesting
an inspection to determine if the MCW IACUC was noncompliant with the AWA in
its approval of this animal use.
- May 2006: APHIS performs the inspection and finds the MCW IACUC in violation
of its responsibility to require adequate justification for animal use in
the physiology course.
- October 2006: PCRM releases its report entitled “Behind the Curve of Medical
Education: The Use of Animals for Physiology Instruction at the Medical
College of Wisconsin.”
- January 2007: “Don’t put man’s best friend under the knife. Stop the Medical
College of Wisconsin’s dog lab,” urge PCRM billboards in Milwaukee.
- February 2007: PCRM and members demonstrate at MCW to save 60 dogs and urge
students not to participate in the live animal lab.
- Fall 2007: MCW discloses that live pigs will replace live dogs for the
first-year physiology course.
- January 2008: “First, do no harm. Stop the Medical College of Wisconsin live
animal lab,” urge PCRM billboards in Milwaukee that call for an end to MCW’s
use of live pigs.
- February 2008: One hundred people attend a PCRM-led educational
demonstration outside MCW on the first day of the live animal laboratory.
- January 2009: PCRM billboards in Milwaukee again call for an end to MCW’s
use of live pigs.
- February 2009: PCRM leads a demonstration urging MCW’s new dean to explore
nonanimal alternatives. At the demonstration’s conclusion, MCW announces
that it has started a pilot program in which medical students observe human
patients as an alternative to animal use.
- February 2010: MCW announces a permanent end to the use of live pigs in its
first-year physiology course.
PCRM will continue to urge MCW to end animal use in all of its physiology
labs in favor of superior human-based alternatives. Ninety-five percent of
medical schools in the United States have eliminated live animal laboratories
from their curricula.
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