22,439,072 members doing good!
about our ads
share your passions, stories, inspirations, and more
I eat no meat: Dissection infection
Feb 4, 2006
I eat no meat: Dissection infection
http://www2.humboldt.edu/~merge/modules.php?op=modload&name=PagEd&file=index&page_id=684#flyskullsweb.jpg
I may not eat meat, but apparently I have to witness rotting carcasses.

About three weeks ago, in front of science-C, I saw students from the marine mammals class dissecting a seal right outside the front door of the building. I thought it was a little weird, but I ignored it for the sake of science.

One week later, in the same spot, I discovered the seal again. But now it was fully dissected and rotting outside. The smell was just about as bad as the sight, and the flies were a swarmin’.

It was probably the most disgusting thing I had ever seen, and I certainly didn’t appreciate that it was in plain view of the public eye.

Milton Boyd, the chair of the biological sciences department said it is common for the department to receive animals that wash up on shore and are already dead, and that HSU has a permit that allows for their dissection.

If an animal is already dead, then feel free to dissect it, I do believe in the importance of science. But please, do it inside.

People have been kicking the dissection dust up for years, going back and forth about the constitutionality of forcing people to do it for education. I never even thought about the issue of forcing people to look at it until now.

Dissecting frogs in high school was never really a problem. They were already dead—what could I do? I thought anyone who refused to do it was weak. But the seal carcass I saw on campus shines new light on the issue.

A large portion of the vegan lifestle is about the protection of animal rights, hence the concerns about killing thousands of frogs, cats, and pig fetuses.

In California, a law passed in 1988 stated that any pupil who has a moral opposition to the dissecting, harming or destruction of animals has the right to notify his or her instructor of the objection.

If the teacher sees fit, he or she can provide the pupil with an alternative lesson, such as a computer program. The alternative assignment should require the same time and effort as the dissection, no more and no less, and the pupil should not be discriminated.

If a computer program can be just as effective as the real thing, then it should not be the alternative, but the method of choice.

Dissection is not the only issue when it comes to scientific research involving animals and animal rights. There’s also the abuse of living, breathing creatures, all for the sake of greener grass and the cosmetic liner that makes one’s eyes appear larger.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that all new chemical products be tested. “Many of these tests are performed on animals, in which the unfortunate creatures are forced to ingest or inhale such products as weed-killers, oven cleaners, cosmetics and paint. For example, caustic chemicals may be forced into dogs’ eyes or smeared into the raw, shaved heads of rabbits,” according to the FDA Web site.

Unfortunately, the use of animals to learn more about ourselves may be in vain.

According to www.navs.org, “Animals and non-human animals do have much in common. All mammals have lungs, hearts and immune systems. So in the 1700s and 1800s, it made sense to think that we could learn something about lung disease, heart disease and diseases of the immune system from experimenting on non-human mammals.”

Upon closer examination, it was discovered that only humans suffer from AIDS, coronary artery disease, and a very small number of animals contract lung cancer from smoking.

So the next time you have to dissect a cat, pig, seal, frog or worm, or the next time you buy shampoo that rubbed was in the eyes of little bunnies, remember the pictures shown above.
(0) | () | | send green star | flag as inappropriate
Visibility: Everyone
Tags: , , , , ,
Posted: Feb 4, 2006 8:57am

 
 
 
Content and comments expressed here are the opinions of Care2 users and not necessarily that of Care2.com or its affiliates.

Author

pElAgUS hellot
female , single
Tamarindo, Costa Rica
Shares by Type:
All (1001) | Blog (255) | Alert (445) | Poll (4) | Recipe (12) | Photo (11) | Tribute (59) | Message (215)

Showing shares tagged with: infection [show all]
ads keep care2 free
SHARES FROM PELAGUS'S NETWORK
May
25
(0 comments  |  discussions )
I have always been a strong proponent of a future united, federal Europe - a single European country, as a more progressive, liberal counterpoint towards the current U.S. hegemony and towards the upcoming powers of China, India and Russia. And I feel...
May
18
(0 comments  |  discussions )
The sun in the North is a temporary guestWho brings with him much warmth and light when he comesFor a few precious months every year he keepsUs company through night and day He makes the trees green, he makes flowers bloomHe makes the birds sing, and ...
May
14
(0 comments  |  discussions )
Ashley is our middle cat and only female.At 11:48 a.m. Thursday, 9 May 2013 in a valiant battle against agressive lung cancer, Ashley died at home.
May
9
(0 comments  |  discussions )
The largest genocide in human history happened where? Most people would answer Germany, and the Jewish Holocaust. Actually though, the largest genocide happened in the USA, with the native American Indians, with estimates of 19 million to 100 millio...
May
8
(0 comments  |  discussions )
(0 comments  |  discussions )
Official Nuclear Radiation Study; Tokyo University Hayno, R.S., et al (2013) Internal Radiocesium Contamination of Adults and Children 7 to 20 Months After the Fukushima NPP Accident as Measured by Extensive Whole-Body-Counter Surveys, Proc. Jpn....
May
6
(0 comments  |  discussions )
Toxic radiation accumulates in water supplies after nuclear accidents. Radiation bioconcentrates in fish that live in fresh water and salt water. Runoff of fresh water from land which has been contaminated ends up contaminating oceans, and salt wate...
(0 comments  |  discussions )
66 Atomic Bombs were exploded on the Bikini Island Atolls. Hundreds of islanders were removed from the islands, but not from harms way. One hydrogen bomb exploded near the islands, and the children played with the dust from the bomb, as it fel...
May
5
(0 comments  |  discussions )
"Under our current law, a suspected terrorist on the FBI's No-Fly List can't board an airplane -- but they can still legally purchase guns and explosives. This loophole, known as the “Terror Gap,” is ...
(0 comments  |  0 discussions )
Germany added more solar panels in one month, than the US did in ONE YEAR. Nearly 1/3 of Germany power output is handled by bottoms up solar energy during the middle of the day. The transition to a 100% renewable energy nation is in process. T...

Copyright © 2013 Care2.com, inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved