Animal dissection labs are an unethical and unnecessary

Millions of frogs are harvested every year from the wild for dissection purposes. This means that, along with all of the other ways humans are impacting frog populations, such as global climate change and pollution, humans are also destroying their populations. In the school curriculum, children are taught about the biodiversity crisis and all of its negative aspects, but at the same time, students are encouraged to contribute to it. 

Many animals taken for school dissections, especially fetal pigs, are by-products of the meat industry. Almost all of the pigs slaughtered for human consumption are raised in crowded, confined conditions. Not only are their lives substantially shortened, but they are also deprived of space, fresh air, and fresh forage. The fetuses used for dissections are taken from pregnant sows at the slaughterhouse. By continuing with animal dissections, school boards are promoting the mistreatment of the animals raised for the meat industry. 

It is not necessary for students to dissect animals in order to see what the insides of the animals look like. If a student were to pursue a career in a field where this is needed, they would have the opportunity to dissect human cadavers in University. However, very few students who participate in these labs in high school will actually go down these career paths. The only thing that an animal dissection lab teaches students is that an animal’s life is disposable and unimportant.

Buying animals for all biology classes can be quite costly. The cost for a high school dissection set can be over $1000.00. However, this is only a one-time purchase. Three years worth of frogs can cost about $1500.00, and for fetal pigs almost $3000.00. However, nowadays there are so many educational, interactive dissection programs that can be used instead, such as Digital Frog 2.5, V-FrogTM, DissectionWorks CatWorks, and many more (Animalearn). With the technologies and programs available in schools to aid with virtual dissections, the money spent on buying dissection sets can clearly be put to better use.

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