Dissecting dead animals back on trustees' plate

Vancouver Courier
Apr 13, 2005
By Naoibh O'Connor
Staff writer

Books, videotapes, models, films and computers may replace hands-on animal dissections for squeamish Vancouver students.

This Wednesday, members of Vancouver school district's education and student services committee will debate a draft policy requiring teachers to inform students of their right to opt out of animal dissections in class for religious or ethical reasons, as long as they complete a comparable activity such as a computer model of a dissection.

Lesley Fox, a 29-year-old East Side animal rights activist, raised the issue with the Vancouver School Board in January. Subsequent consultation with students, principals, teachers' associations and parents found support for implementing a student choice policy, although the Vancouver Secondary Teachers' Association has reservations.

Stuart Mackinnon, VSTA vice-president, said the policy is unnecessary because school regulations do not stop students from opting out now. He said he's never heard of anyone within the system complaining about class dissection.

Mackinnon suspects initiating a policy may force the board to spend money on computer software or other resources that would be used to complete a replacement assignment. He questions whether good dissection software exists.

"Certainly having computers in the lab is a really good idea, but this is mandating the board to do something to spend money. Is this where we want to spend the money right now? It might be," he said.

Regular dissections do cost money. Although which dissections are completed differs from school to school, in general students dissect cow eyes in Grade 8 and frogs, worms, crayfish, starfish, grasshoppers, flatworms and rats in Biology 11. Biology 12 students dissect fetal pigs. Most of the specimens come from south of the border.

Frogs, priced at roughly $5 each, and insects are bought from collectors in the U.S. and sometimes from Mexico. Typically, one frog is used by two students.

Fetal pigs, which cost between $16 and $25 and are used by three students, are purchased from American slaughterhouses. When a sow is sold to a slaughterhouse and is found pregnant, the fetus is removed for scientific use.

Cows' eyeballs are also obtained from slaughterhouses, but there is a ban on importing these from the U.S. so they're usually purchased in Canada. A pail of 100 is $257. Vacuum packs of 10 are $23, but they only last a year, while the pail lasts much longer.

Rats are purchased from stocks bred for scientific use.

On Monday, Green Party trustee Andrea Reimer was leaning toward the policy, although she hadn't yet read the recommendation in detail.

"It's probably not a big issue, but for those who it is a big issue for, it's probably the difference between a positive and a negative school experience," she said, noting she's received a number of emails from students who back the proposed policy.