Wednesday January 14, 2009, 8:00 pm
Dear PCRM supporter,

Help us end the use of live dogs in a trauma training course at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (UM). Documents obtained by PCRM under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act reveal that UM is using lost or surrendered pets—including a silver-and-black malamute named Koda—from Michigan shelters for the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course. At UM, this course involves cutting open live, anesthetized dogs and practicing emergency medical procedures. After the training session, the animals are killed. All of this happens even though UM owns a validated nonanimal teaching method as part of its state-of-the-art medical simulation center.

While a handful of institutions like UM continue to use live animals, the American College of Surgeons, the ATLS oversight body, has approved nonanimal models like the TraumaMan System, Synman, and human cadavers for these courses. Across the U.S. and Canada more than 90 percent of ATLS courses are taught using only human-based simulators.

Please call, e-mail, or write a letter to UM executive vice president for medical affairs Robert P. Kelch, M.D., and politely ask him to end animal use in the institution’s ATLS courses. Being polite is the most effective way to help these animals. Send an automatic e-mail today.

Robert P. Kelch, M.D.
Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs
M7324 Medical Science Building, Box 0626
University of Michigan Health System
1500 E. Medical Center Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
E-mail: rkelch@med.umich.edu
Phone: 734-647-9351

On Jan. 14, 2009, PCRM filed an official complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (PDF), citing the unlawful use of live animals by UM. The complaint cites an ongoing 2007-2008 survey by PCRM, which has so far received responses from 197 U.S. and Canadian facilities offering ATLS courses. The survey has found that 180 of those facilities (more than 90 percent) exclusively use nonanimal models for instruction. In addition, the vast majority of those 180 facilities exclusively use the TraumaMan System.

Read the recent Detroit Free Press article on this issue. Learn more about the TraumaMan System and UM’s simulation center. If you have any questions, please contact me at rmerkley@pcrm.org or 202-686-2210, ext. 336. Thanks so much for your help!

Best regards,

Ryan Merkley
Manager of Humane Education Programs

Wednesday January 14, 2009, 9:18 pm
Also an petition site for (PCRM ) this issue.

https://secure2.convio.net/pcrm/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=219&AddInterest=1781&JServSessionIdr006=zpdshszah1.app14a

Wednesday January 14, 2009, 9:27 pm
Email sent to Robert P. Kelch, M.D., Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs

Thursday January 15, 2009, 12:47 am
Email sent
Thanks Simone

Thursday January 15, 2009, 3:35 am
E-mail sent. Thanks Simone.

Thursday January 15, 2009, 9:21 pm
This issue is PERSONAL to me. As soon as I received this petition the other day, I contacted Dr. Kelch's office and begged and pleaded to allow me to adopt Koda before they hurt him. I live in Ann Arbor, and offered to drop everything and come pick him up. I pleaded with them to allow me to save just one dog. Koda. He had a name. His owner had to give him up, not knowing that she had given him up to a kill shelter. He was then sold by the shelter to a company who supplies animals for research, etc. PCRM tried to help me, but informed me this morning that Koda had already been killed. PLEASE DISTRIBUTE this petition to EVERYONE you know, as soon as possible. More dogs are going to be killed if the U of M is not stopped!

Monday January 19, 2009, 12:22 pm
Noted with a sense of horror...

Monday January 19, 2009, 1:32 pm
Sent e-mail a few days ago.
Thanks Simone

Monday January 19, 2009, 2:32 pm
sent a while back, oh sent sent sent ~

uom stated they would continue using live animals because it is "important" to see reactions in the living body ~

ha! i say again all you abusers of animals ~ send your students to an inner-city emergency department on a weekend and they will see all the trauma they care to see, and in the human body they'll be working on when they graduate ~

just an excuse for more money. and pound seizure is still legal in michigan ~

Monday January 19, 2009, 2:58 pm
To Whom It May Concern,
Please consider the following before you touch another animal in your practice. Bare in mind that these animals feel. They have a mind, emotions and are able to feel pain. What you are having done to them is paramount to torture, and they never foget what is done to them. You are forever damaging them and inflicting pain and agony.

Many people feel drawn to advocate for animals because even though they can feel pain and suffer just as we do, they do not have a way to advocate for their own welfare. In fact, animals are viewed by many as nothing more than property to be treated however the owner wishes. This view has created an inhumane situation for billions of animals that share our world.
-- Robert Alan
Many years ago, I was in a Broadway show and I had to wear a fox fur around my shoulders. One day my hand touched one of the fox's legs. It seemed to be in two pieces. Then it dawned on me.... her leg had probally been snapped in two by the steel trap that had caught it.
-- Bea Arthur
Life is life--whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man's own advantage.
-- Sri Aurobindo
The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but rather, "Can they suffer?"
~Jeremy Bentham
'For the animal shall not be measured by man.In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not bretheren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the Earth'
-- Henry Beston
"Life is life's greatest gift. Guard the life of another creature as you would your own because it is your own. On life's scale of values, the smallest is no less precious to the creature who owns it than the largest."
-- Lloyd Biggle Jr.
I don`t hold animals superior or even equal to humans. The whole case for behaving decently to animals rests on the fact that we are the superior species. We are the species uniquely capable of imagination, rationality, and moral choice - and that is precisely why we are under an obligation to recognize and respect the rights of animals.
-- Brigid Brophy

We know the poison from the radioactive dump will go down under the ground and leak into the water. We drink from this water. The animals drink from this water. We're worried that the animals will become poisoned, and we'll become poisoned in our turn.
-- Eileen Kampakuta Brown & The Kungka Tju
May all that have life be delivered from suffering.
-- Buddha
When a man has pity on all living creatures then only is he noble.
--Buddha (563? - 483? B.C.)
"Love of animals is a universal impulse, a common ground on which all of us may meet. By loving and understanding animals, perhaps we humans shall come to understand each other."
-- Louis J. Camuti

* Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is--whether its victim is human or animal--we cannot expect things to be much better in this world...
-- Rachel Carson
* We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing we set back the progress of humanity.
-- Rachel Carson
"The brute animals have all the same sensations of pain as human beings, and consequently endure as much pain when their body is hurt; but in their case the cruelty of torment is greater, because they have no mind to bear them up against their sufferings, and no hope to look forward to when enduring the last extreme pain."
-- Thomas Chalmers
"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men."
-- Leonardo Da Vinci
I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her.
-- Ellen DeGeneres
"You have to love animals for what they are or leave them alone. The best thing you can do if you love them is leave them alone and see that other people do too."
-- Pat Derby

Monday January 19, 2009, 4:14 pm
Noted, forwarded and e-mail letter sent dearest Simone. Thanks for sharing.
Love, Black Dalia

Monday January 19, 2009, 5:38 pm
"To close your eyes will not ease another's pain." ~ Chinese Proverb
"Never doubt that a small group of concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." ~ Margaret Mead, American Anthropologist
"The man who kills the animals today is the man who kills the people who get in his way tomorrow." ~ Dr. Diane Fossey, Woman in the Mists (Dr. Fossey was killed by someone who killed animals yesterday.)

Monday January 19, 2009, 6:51 pm
Signed for both me and my husband
Thanks Simone

Monday January 19, 2009, 8:02 pm
Signed and here is my comment sent.

"It would be wise to stop the abuse and cruelty to the animals, NOW. Our nation is moving in a new direction, one that does not include actions that do not serve us personally or collectively. Thank you for your consideration, help us bring in the New Age."

Thx Simone. It amazes me that there are still people that think we are better than animals. it has all ways been shocking to me the way some treat the animals they are here to advance and take care of and then they wonder why their own life is %$##@.

Monday January 19, 2009, 9:06 pm
Email sent. Thank you.

Monday January 19, 2009, 11:09 pm
Noted and mailed.

Monday January 19, 2009, 11:48 pm
Noted and thank you Simone.

Shame on all those responsible and those who condone and support this inhumanity to the defenseless and voiceless animals!

Letter written and sent.
Help End the Use of Live Dogs for Trauma Training at the University of Michigan Health System

Thank you for contacting UM executive vice president for medical affairs Robert P. Kelch, M.D. (an e-mail has been sent). If you would like a copy for your records, you can

Tuesday January 20, 2009, 3:51 am
DONE! THANK YOU SIMONE AND EVERYONE EHRE!

Tuesday January 20, 2009, 6:14 am
These unnecessary and unreliable sadistic torture of animals have NO worthy aim and must stop!
Noted and will send e-mail too and will do the rest as usual.
Thanks Simone and Marlize A.

Tuesday January 20, 2009, 6:21 am
I already send e-mail and online mail on: Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:01:39 +0100

Robert P. Kelch, M.D.
Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs
M7324 Medical Science Building, Box 0626
University of Michigan Health System
1500 E. Medical Center Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
E-mail: rkelch@med.umich.edu
Phone: 734-647-9351

Quote: "Those who experiment on animals should never be able to quiet their own conscience by telling themselves that these cruelties have a worthy aim." -- Albert Schweitzer, physician/Nobel Laureate --

Dear Sir,

I am shocked and filled with sadness reading that you are still using live animals in your teaching methods and even use lost or surrendered pets from Michigan shelters for the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course.

Even though UM owns a validated nonanimal teaching method as part of its state-of-the-art medical simulation center, you are still refusing.

While a handful of institutions like UM continue to use live animals, the American College of Surgeons, the ATLS oversight body, has approved nonanimal models like the TraumaMan System, Synman, and human cadavers for these courses. Across the U.S. and Canada more than 90 percent of ATLS courses are taught using only human-based simulators.

See also: http://www.simulab.com/home-traumaman-system
Home of TraumaMan System
Since TraumaMan's debut in 2001, he has both won the approval of the leading surgical societies and become the most widely used surgical simulator in the world. Each year over 20,000 medical professionals are trained using the TraumaMan System and that number keeps growing. TraumaMan was created to meet the needs of advanced trauma surgical skills courses and now has been integrated into a wide variety of curriculum.

UM owns a validated nonanimal teaching method as part of its state-of-the-art medical simulation center and I hereby urge you to end animal use in the institution’s ATLS courses.

I truly hope with whole my heart that you bring compassion in your medical center, using modern teaching methods like the TraumaMan System.

Sincerely,

Tuesday January 20, 2009, 7:34 am
LETTER SENT

Tuesday January 20, 2009, 11:39 am
emailed. I suspect it is cheaper to have an abandoned pet dog who will be quiet and submissive because it is used to people. I don't understand how they can use a dog as surely they are not allowed to anaesthatise a dog or put it down unless they are a vet?

Tuesday January 20, 2009, 2:26 pm
Please e-mail this PCRM action site to EVERYONE YOU KNOW on any social networking space, all of your friends and family, post on your blog, and continue to e-mail this SOCIOPATH, Dr. Kelch EVERY DAY!

Tuesday January 20, 2009, 7:55 pm

Thank you, dear friends! Here is a sample message.

* * * * * * * * * *

TO: rkelch@med.umich.edu


I have just learned of UM's vivisection of lost or surrendered dogs in its Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course. Following numerous painful, invasive procedures, these animals are killed and discarded as trash.

Given UM's own state-of-the-art non-animal teaching methods (part of its unparalleled medical simulation center), it is unconscionable that live animals should continue to be exploited - particularly those from so-called "shelters." Surely these poor dogs - a number of them former pets - wonder what they've done to deserve such a fate.

Please set a compassionate precedent and discontinue the exploitation of live animals at UM. Please also discourage local "shelters" from selling or surrendering animals for vivisection purposes. Thank you for your time and kind consideration.

Wednesday January 21, 2009, 2:42 am
As bad as individual incidents of cruelty are,this is repeated over and over again. It just makes me ill to think about it.

Wednesday January 21, 2009, 7:06 am
Action taken and noted. Thanks, Simone.

Wednesday January 21, 2009, 7:06 am
If this University claims they use lost and stray dogs this means they are getting them from a Class B dealer. There is a large Class B dealer in Michigan. These babies are brought to the Class B dealer by "bunchers" who pick up strays, answer free to good home advertisements and even steal pets from yards. The Class B dealer pays the buncher a nominal sum and sells the dogs to these researchers for $400 to $1000. Universites are Class B dealers' biggest customers! These are America's pets and researchers prefer them because they are so docile and trust any human. Your elected officials in Washington let you down when they failed to pass the Pet Protection and Safety Act which would have prevented Class B dealers from selling to research facilities. I sent an e-mail from PCRM website but I am going to write them an e-mail and tell them I know where they are getting their dogs for research and not everyone is dumb enough to believe they use strays.

Wednesday January 21, 2009, 7:07 am
I've now sent two letters! And put in USA postal code and state. I'm from South Africa, but who cares? As long as we are signing and sending... Thanks Simone

Wednesday January 21, 2009, 7:10 am
Yet Again I Shake My Head & wish the Same On The future Doctors etc That Did This ... Fucking **nts. Aaaaggghhh

Wednesday January 21, 2009, 7:12 am
I Appologise For My Language But words Are better than giving Myself A stroke!!

Wednesday January 21, 2009, 12:09 pm
Email also sent.

Wednesday January 21, 2009, 1:15 pm
noted, email sent

Wednesday January 21, 2009, 4:26 pm
I NOTED-THANKS

Wednesday January 21, 2009, 8:07 pm
Noted. Letter sent. I will forward this as it was forwarded to me. The more people see it the better. TY Simone.

Thursday January 22, 2009, 2:03 am
All I can say is that it hurts me tremendously. What hurts even more is the cases of cruelty towards all animals that we dont know about.

Thursday January 22, 2009, 11:12 am
Noted and letter sent!

Thursday January 22, 2009, 2:17 pm
Sent off the message! Thanx Simone.

Wednesday February 25, 2009, 8:17 am
sent to outside care2 advocates of animals and welfare persons. i hope with a loud voice that these type of training and cruelty to animals will end! there are other ways to be trained, or get experiences, other then harming animals!