LancasterOnline.com

By Ad Crable
Lancaster New Era

Published: Mar 22, 2005 1:36 PM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - During his 28 years as a biology teacher at Penn Manor High School, John Laskowski had his students dissect wild salmon, brown trout, frogs, gall flies and the embryos of chicks.A number of his students have become doctors, and Laskowski thinks his dissection lab just may have provided the spark that pointed them in that direction.

“There are certain things in life we have to see real,” he says. “A lot of kids later remember that dissection lab. Maybe it’s because they didn’t like it, but they all remembered it. Those experiences are very meaningful.”

Dissection in the classroom has been a fixture since the 1920s. Both the National Science Teachers Association and the National Association of Biology Teachers endorse it as an effective learning tool.

So what’s wrong with cutting up a frog, cat, fetal pig, worm or insect and peeking inside?

Plenty, say animal-rights groups who would like to see dissections banned. Among their complaints:

n Killing and dismembering wildlife breed an attitude that animals are disposable and is at odds with the concept of respecting all living things.

n Rather than instill an interest in science, dissections often turn students off as they are “repulsed by the first gratuitous exercise in cruelty.”

n Animals suffer because of it. A large, inhumane warehouse industry exists to breed animals for laboratory use. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals estimates 20 million frogs, cats, mice and others are annually sliced and diced in schools in the name of science.

n Some animals used in the classroom are taken from the wild, endangering local populations. Others are former pets.

n In this technological age, dissection is an anachronism. Realistic and cheaper alternatives exist, such as models and computer programs, to impart the knowledge without killing an organism.

“The same objectives are met, and in a better way, with alternatives,” says Kathleen Conlee of the Humane Society of the United States.

“We have over 20 scientific studies that show students learn better with alternatives than dissections.”

HSUS and PETA are on the front line in the battle to get dissection out of the classroom.

They and other groups have not made headway in getting dissections banned from public education, but they can claim success in getting a growing number of states to pass laws that give students the right not to participate in dissections.

Beginning with this school year, Virginia became the ninth state requiring schools to give students a chance to opt out of dissections and be given an alternative.

Pennsylvania took such a step in 1992.

Public or private students from kindergarten through high school don’t have to capture or dissect any animal or body part. They don’t even have to participate in a classroom project to incubate eggs.

And the school has to let parents know at least three weeks in advance of any such activity. Any student or parent who doesn’t want to participate must be given an alternative way to glean the lesson and his or her grade can’t suffer for the refusal to go along with the rest of the class.

The animal-rights groups are stepping up the campaign to force the issue.

When the Virginia law was passed, HSUS sent letters to 300 school districts, making sure they knew what was expected of them.

The HSUS and National Anti-Vivisection Society offers to loan alternative software to schools.

In an Internet Web site aimed at kids, PETA urges students to speak up in class and fight dissection. “It’s easy and you have the right,” the PETAKiDS Web site says. “Thousands of students have done it, and you can, too. You may be the first person at your school to refuse — so do it! Express yourself and be a trend-setter, trail-blazer, and animal hero.”

If a student is meeting resistance, the Animal Legal Defense Fund will guide him or her to an attorney.

PETA is not afraid to play the mass murderer card. The group’s Web site notes that in his last interview before his death, “Jeffrey Dahmer said that he became fascinated with blood and guts when his school gave him a knife and dead animal to cut apart in biology class.”

Not everyone is buying the argument. Five states in the last seven years have rejected bills to provide mandatory alternatives to dissections.

The National Association of Biology Teachers endorses guidelines to ensure the proper care and use of animals. But dissection should not be banned, the organization says.

“No alternative can substitute for the actual experience of dissection or other use of animals,” is how the group’s board of directors put it. “NABT urges teachers to be aware of the limitations of alternatives.”

Dr. William Lewis, a veterinarian with Smoketown Veterinary Hospital who recently dissected a road-killed 5-foot black snake in front of wide-eyed kids at the North Museum, is all for giving kids a choice when it comes to dissections.

But he adds, “I definitely think everybody should be given the opportunity if they want to do it.”

He thinks rubber models and interactive computer programs lack something.

“It doesn’t give you the full effect. Models don’t bleed and that’s one of the critical parts of learning in my profession. When you have the feel of it, hands-on, things feel different from one thing to another. In an actual dissection, every sense is involved, from sight to touch.”

Local biology teachers report that few students opt out of dissections.

Stephen Shaw, a West Lampeter Township teacher in York County, dissects a road-killed deer annually for his middle school students. He has a jar of twin deer fetuses in his classroom and has revealed body parts of foxes, turkeys and snakes in class.

He says holding up a model or having everyone hunch over a computer just wouldn’t drive the anatomical points home in the same way.

“It’s an excellent activity on discovery,” he says.

And he adds, “How do people think their doctor gets trained? If I had my valves replaced, I certainly hope he had some experience on the real thing.”

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