As a University of Pittsburgh zoology major, Jenna Morasca refused to dissect an animal. Her grade suffered. Using her visibility as winner of the CBS series Survivor: the Amazon, she put out an ad and a poster: "We Both Survived". Things changed.

The organization that helped her do this is the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which has made available abundant free information on the subject of good alternatives to the terrible uses of animal in science education. The determination of informed and committed professionals is paving the way to change.

Dog labs, once common in U.S. medical schools, have been banned on the majority of campuses. Expensive and destructive purchases of cats, fetal pigs, and frogs are being replaced by other methods which have clear advantages.

Models, computer programs, and other alternatives are widely available. One of the sites which states their advantages clearly is Animalearn. Those advantages are: better learning; financial savings; healthful environments for students -- since no harmful chemicals are involved; and sound ethics -- dissection is a desensitizing experience, and can be perceived as a violent one.

Nancy Harrison, M.D., on the staff of Scripps Memorial Hospital Department of Pathology, is quoted in a PCRM article thus: :I can assure students that computer images of well-preserved tissues look more like the real thing than the squishy gray organs of a formalin-fixed specimen.”

Several organizations make models, computer programs, and other dissection alternatives to available schools. One of those, the Ethical Science & Education Coalition, offers a catalog. Email them at esec [at] ma [dot] neavs [dot] com. Another, the Humane Society, offers the Education Loan Program, click or call 301-258-3042.

PCRM reminds students, parents and concerned taxpayers to find out, early in the year, if the students will be required to perform or watch dissection. If so, talk with the teacher calmly, and state why you will not participate. If there is no dialog, take your concerns to the principal. It may help to involve others, and to put your concerns in writing, suggesting possible alternatives. You’re riding the wave of the future, and need not doubt your ultimate success.