What if you want to be a doctor or veterinarian? Isn’t dissecting animals in high school important for your career?

Many medical and veterinary schools have already made a commitment to reduce or end animal use. Several Universities are changing their policies to allow students alternatives to animal dissection. It is now possible to obtain a medical or veterinary University degree without killing or dissecting animals.

Regarding Medical Schools - Not one of the top ten medical colleges in the United States, including Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Columbia Universities uses animals to train doctors. Moreover, 91 of the USA’s 126 medical schools now have entirely non-animal curricula.

In Canada, several medical schools also have similar policies including the University of Calgary, University of Toronto, Queens University, University of Laval and the University of Manitoba.

Even the University of British Columbia is working to reduce animal use. The Department of Surgery has removed the use of animals from its third year clerkship program for the teaching of basic surgical skills (students practice on devices and models instead). This year, the third year orientation week included a new session on suturing which used pigs feet for practice… Students who did not wish to use the pigs feet were offered the option of practicing on a banana instead.

Regarding Veterinary Schools, there are several Veterinary schools that allow students some flexibility and choice in regards to using animal specimens. Many veterinary schools (including the University of Guelph), are reported to be changing their policies, implementing non-animal alternatives, actively reducing the number of animals used and/or even choosing to use only ‘ethically sourced’ animals – which are animals who have died of natural causes or for humane reasons.