Surgeon operates on dog...

[Michele]

They did stuff to the dog while it was alive and then euthenized it (I think the lab procedures killed the dog by the end of it).

I think that's what they did for the ATLS course too.

I've done this. We had an option for a cadaver dog, but I really didn't think I would get as good of an experience. We really used the live dogs up though b/c of the ethics and cost involved. They were specifically bred dogs too, so no just running to shelter and grabbin' a few that were going to be euthanized anyway. We anesthetized them in the morning, and one lab group did upperbody and skin procedures in the AM, then the dogs were kept under anesthesia for the second group to dog abdominal procedures in the PM...after the groups were done the dogs were euthanized before waking up. One day the dogs were kept alive (but still anesthetized) for an evening lab for the interns and residents. As an intern I was able to practice tracheostomies, arterial sticks/catheter placement, central line placement, joint taps, spinal taps (lumbar and AO) and the anesthesia group gave us a very in depth tutorial on CPR....we did closed and open chest CPR. The dogs were kept anesthetized throughout the entire time. It was a learning experience I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. The neuro group even got to practice decompression surgery.

For the lab group time (senior year) it was only people who took small animal surgery elective. We used bone models for most of the course and only used live dogs when the benefit of live tissue was important,...and there were about 1/3 of groups who chose cadavers instead.

For spay and neuter labs, the sophomores practice on cadavers and then move to live shelter dogs which are later adopted out. There is also a feral cat trap-neuter-release program where students get to neuter and spay cats once a month with vet supervision.

It certainly sucks to kill purpose-bred dogs in the name of science and medicine. But I feel it's worse to kill patients because we are unprepared. I have classmates who disagreed with me and I respect that too.


One of the things they don't like to talk about either is that most of the cadavers are purpose-bred as well. Either they weren't needed for a study or the study finished and the dogs bodies were still good. The idea of breeding dogs just for research falls into the same category for me as food animals. But again some of my classmates felt differently about dogs vs food animals and some of my classmates felt they were the same and we shouldn't do either.

It's something that comes up a lot in vet school.

[Phoebe]

DH did his lab work on rat pups. Another fellow used baby pigs and it was really sad. Using dogs is even worse in my book.