Question

Should the dissection of animals in U.S. public schools be stopped? Why or why not?

Answer 1

There is no real answer, it depends solely on your ethics and point of view, I will try to summarize the arguments for why and why not for you.

Explanation:

FOR stopping dissection:

• It is cruel to animals, they often under go a lot of abuse before being dissected, such as not being appropriately stored or handled, many animals and parts of animals are sold to schools by fur companies, slaughter houses, pet shops.
• It's a waste of life. Is it right to take it?
• There are alternative ways of teaching anatomy which do not involve mutilation of a creature. Do we have other ways of educating our kids?
• It could harm a child's mental development. What are implications of an experience like dissection?
• It costs over $1000.00 for a ONE-time purchase, $1500.00 for 3 years worth of frogs and $3000.00 for fetal pigs. Could this money be better used else where?

AGAINST stopping dissection:

• Its an experience, all kids across the country do dissection. Should a child be starved of this opportunity to learn hands on for the sake of a creature?
• Its not cruel, the animal is dead before the dissection takes place, and humanely killed as well. If the animal is dead and humanely killed, is there a problem at all?
• Sheets and power points as an alternative option can be an awful lot less engaging than a dissection. A child will most likely learn a lot more by doing things themselves than reading a sheet.
• Our society is too tolerant, we should be immersing our kids in these kind of things to keep them from being cotton balled. Are kids now a days like this?

I put some questions and tried to keep it as unbiased as possible.*

Hope this helps!
-Charlie .P

*As a side note, I'm for it as long as its a respectful death for said creature.