Dissection
An education in death and destruction
Do you think students should be taught caring
and responsible attitudes to animals?
If so, what sort of attitudes do you think school students learn from cutting up animals for biology exercises? One Australian student who believes it is wrong to exploit animals expresses it this way:
"Biology is the science of life, yet we are told that to study life we must mutilate dead animals who have been bred, born and killed in wire cages, and whose bodies we then throw into the garbage".
Dissection contradicts the purpose of biology
It indoctrinates students that animals are here for us to use and abuse. Studies show that students learn just as much from videos and computer simulations, without destroying life. All students have the right to refuse to do dissections.
Demand to learn biology, the science of life, without causing death.
There ARE alternatives!
Dissection is not a legal or educational requirement in Australian Schools. There are many alternatives to the use of animals in teaching. These are just some of the wide range now available: VIDEOS: These allow a flexible approach to teaching and encourage student interaction, illustrating the external organs and structure, the circulatory system, the respiratory system, the digestive system and the urogenital system. A video, unlike a dead animal, can be used again and again. COMPUTER SIMULATIONS: To demonstrate the activity of nerves or muscles, or the effects of various drugs. Some programs allow university students to carry out ÒexperimentsÓ eg., to test the effects of various drugs on the cardiovascular system. 
What can YOU do? As a student, explain to your teacher why you object to animals being killed or harmed for your education and that you would like to have available one of the many alternatives.
As a concerned citizen write to:
The Minister For Agriculture,
The Hon. Richard Amery,
Parliament House, Sydney NSW 2000.
Ask why he continues to allow animals to be killed for teaching purposes when there as so many alternatives, and all the available evidence shows that students learn just as much without using animals.
See our interview with Andrew Knight.
Andrew is a veterinary science student who has brought enormous changes to the system, saving the lives of many animals.
