They are teenagers on a mission.
Echoing a nationwide trend, students in Seymour are petitioning to ban animal dissections in biology and anatomy classes at the high school.
They want to replace the animals with a computer-based learning program. Click here to check out one such program.
As of Wednesday, 243 students had signed the petition, which is being circulated by 16-year-old junior Rachel Matos.
Matos is a vegetarian. She launched her petition drive last week after reading a book about the subject published by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
It’s not simply about the traditional gross-out factor of high school dissections to which Matos objects — it is the suffering of laboratory animals, she said.
Matos said fetal pigs and pregnant cats are dissected at the high school.
According to Justin Goodman, associate director for laboratory investigations with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), in Washington, D.C., fetal pigs are cut from the pregnant mothers’ stomachs in slaughterhouses and homeless cats are purchased from shelters by biology supply companies.
“There is a trail of cruelty, and a lot of people don’t support that. We don’t think animals should be treated as disposable laboratory equipment,” Goodman said.
That’s what resonates with Matos.
“It’s how they got these animals that bothers me,” she said.
Matos became a vegetarian last year. This is the first time she’s tied her eating habits to activism.
“I believe in the sanctity of all life due to my moral beliefs,” she said.
Matos said the dissections usually happen during anatomy class. She’s a junior and is slated to take anatomy next year.
School officials in Seymour did not return numerous calls for comment this week, so the Valley Indy was unable to find out if there is a way for students or teachers to opt out of the activity.
Matos hopes to convince school officials to stop dissection before she enters her senior year of high school.
She is joined in the petition drive by fellow student Mary Sheppard, 16, also a junior. She also does not want to dissect animals next year.
Sheppard is not a vegetarian, but, like Matos, feels compassion for the animals used in dissection class.
“Animals shouldn’t be raised to die, that’s horrible,” Sheppard said.
The students have been getting students to sign the petition during their lunch breaks. They hope to extend their petition drive beyond the walls of the high school by asking Seymour residents to sign it as well.
The Anti-Dissection Trend
Matos and her fellow students are not alone in their objections.
Fifteen states now have statutes allowing students to conscientiously object to animal dissections and to opt out of it, said Goodman, the PETA spokesman.
The movement has been building steam since the 1980s, when the first electronic dissection substitutes became available, he said.
It’s A State Issue, Too
Connecticut is not yet on that list of states — but there is a bill pending in Hartford that would allow students to conscientiously object to performing animal dissections. It was introduced by state Rep. Diana Urban, D‑Stonington, who could not be reached for comment.
Click here to read statements of support for the bill.
The bill has at least one opponent — the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE). The group indicates the law would require too much time and work for cash-strapped school districts.
“The time and financial resources to alter the curriculum are a burden to the district. During these tough economic times, we cannot support this specific mandated legislation,” officials with CABE told state lawmakers.
Alternatives?
Dissection was popular in past decades because it gave students hands-on experience with bodily organs of animals like frogs and fetal pigs.
But in the modern era, with computer software, these experiences can be simulated and the quality of education is just as good, if not better, because it can be repeated as often as needed, said Goodman.
He said it is also a cost savings to use software rather than specimens.
PETA supports the use of software, rather than animal specimens, on the grounds of how the animals wind up in those formaldehyde-filled jars.
“Dissection is responsible for taking the lives of 20 million animals a year in the U.S.,” Goodman said, adding that these animals like frogs are captured in the wild, get shipped off long distances where they get sick, maybe die, and get killed by a biology supply company.
Who Should She Lobby?
Matos said the animals in dissection at Seymour High School include frogs, fetal pigs, baby sharks and cats.
She should probably direct her petition to the high school principal, said Edward Strumello, chairman of the Board of Education.
He learned about the petition from the Valley Indy and declined comment.
On a national level, the National Science Teachers Association supports giving science teachers a choice of whether they will use specimens or electronic simulations.
There are many different methods to teach the material, said Francis Eberle, executive director of the NSTA.
“We don’t want to endorse any one product, but our position is really that the teachers need to review the materials on what will be the best way to achieve those goals for those students,” Eberle said.
