Mac School Board supports continuing dissection

Jan 28, 2013 | 12 Comments

News-Register Staff

McMinnville School Board members voted unanimously Monday night to continue cat dissection in the Advanced Placement biology class at Mac High.

The elective class is taken mostly by seniors interested in careers in human or animal medical care. Not more than five cats are used each term, said Tony Vicknair, director of secondary programs for the school district.

But Cat Coalition members objected to the way cats are obtained, as well as to using them for dissection. Both practices are inhumane, they said. Antoinette Marcel of the coalition said using computer simulations and other technology to teach anatomy would teach students more and stop sending the message that it's OK to hurt cats.

Marcel had asked the district to stop the practice last fall. When the curriculum committee turned her down, she appealed to the school board.

Several medical professionals on the board cited their own experiences with dissection, which they said were vital to their training.

For additional details, see the Friday News-Register.

Comments

11:47 pm - Mon, January 28 2013

thekratz said:

Do any other schools do this?

07:48 am - Tue, January 29 2013

Russian Doll said:

I was a non-science major in college who took an anatomy class. We used human cadavers and I can whole-heartedly agree that working with actually organs and bodies is the best way to understand the workings of the body. I support the school board.

11:38 am - Tue, January 29 2013

bikerchick said:

The dissection part is bad enough, but when the school board DOES NOT CARE HOW THESE CATS ARE KILLED for them to use, is DEPLORABLE. If they want to dissect, then get cats from a state that kills by INJECTION, not a state that does it INHUMANELY by gassing and causing the animal 30 minutes of horrible pain ! They should NEVER support a company that does this to ANY ANIMAL ! Just because someone has a degree does not make them smart or have common sense. We should not support a board that likes torturing animals in this way.

09:07 am - Wed, January 30 2013

Lulu said:

This manner in which these cats are procured is reprehensible, and the people who receive them are just as culpable.
On the other hand, speaking of available carcasses, there are any number of dead animals within this county systematically tortured to death by twisted little perverts. The toothless justice system obviously doesn't care--remember the judge who ordered a defendant to work in an animal shelter as a condition of probation? Why not sentence a child molester to spend time at a day care center?

10:22 am - Wed, January 30 2013

Dances with Redwoods said:

"Do any other schools do this?"

First properly instruct, then have the students perform the euthanasia procedure before doing their dead-cat disections.

12:38 pm - Wed, January 30 2013

Dances with Redwoods said:

I would further suggest that university psychology students might gain some bit of knowlege as well, and Temple Grandin does come to mind.

08:03 am - Thu, January 31 2013

Don Dix said:

There are 3 members of the school board that studied to become doctors in their respective fields. Each have spoken to the importance of 'real ' over 'models' for dissection. Does Antionette Marcel have a medical degree, or even studied to become a doctor -- not likely.

So who would know how best to prepare students for further study into the medical profession -- real doctors or a novice with a cause?

09:49 am - Thu, January 31 2013

Lulu said:

Josef Mengele was a real doctor, too. He dissected people while they were still alive.

07:45 am - Fri, February 1 2013

Don Dix said:

Rather than lumping a known war criminal to local doctors, why not ask your personal physician his/her take on the subject?

10:28 am - Fri, February 1 2013

Lulu said:

I'm merely saying the profession should not trump the person. Besides, my MD is Jeffery Macdonald.
Why are we so quick to ignore ethical values and defer to a degree?

11:35 am - Sun, February 3 2013

Oregonize said:

Should we also ask our personal physician about their take on using the gas chamber method? Are people really in support of the way these animals are killed?

12:19 pm - Sun, February 3 2013

Lulu said:

Does anyone remember having a terrible teacher, bored and boring and mean, a lousy principal whose major claim to fame was as a former coach, an older-than-God judge ignoring the danger of a threatening husband--who subsequently slaughters his entire family--an incompetent doctor who never listened?
Why are we so willing to act like sheep and desire to live in a patriarchal, paternalistic society?