Posted on 05/13/2005 1:11:45 PM PDT by MD_2_BE
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Gunnison High School has received angry phone calls since news reports that biology students witnessed surgical exploration of an anesthetized dog before it was euthanized.
South Sanpete School District officials said such demonstrations will not be performed again.
"It's an unfortunate incident and one we don't condone or defend," district Superintendent Jim Petersen said.
School officials said the operation, allowing the students to see the dog's digestive system, was performed by a veterinarian on an anesthetized Rottweiler scheduled to be euthanized.
"The dog had no feeling as to what was going on. The dog did not suffer," said Gunnison High School Principal Kirk Anderson.
"Most of the students said it was a 'positive learning experience,"' Anderson said.
Peterson said the Rottweiler came into the veterinarian's care after a family that adopted it noticed the dog threatening children. The veterinarian couldn't find a home for the dog and decided it had to be put down, he said.
The veterinarian knew the class's substitute teacher -- a retired 30-year veteran of the school that still fills in sometimes -- and approached him about teaching the students on a live dog before it was euthanized, Peterson said.
Peterson said eight of the nine students in the class received parental consent to go on the trip, and the other student did alternative work.
The students left after seeing the operation and the veterinarian euthanized the dog.
After news reports, the high school and district administrators were flooded with telephone calls alleging animal cruelty and saying the incident was "sending a terrible message" to young people.
The Humane Society of Utah said, "We feel that both the instructor and the veterinarian involved in this case used extremely poor judgment all around."
"We apologize to anyone who feels the dog was hurt in any way," Anderson said.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Rather than a bloody hack and slash in the classroom like the other stories make it out to be, this was a voluntary field trip to a veterenary facility with detailed permission slips signed by all parents of those attending.
I guess Utahns aren't just a bunch of hillbillies like the MSM makes them out to be...
omigawd he must be killed blah blah. Oh wait, that's another thread.
EXACTLY. To hear the folks in the other thread rant and rave, you'd think the substitute teacher dragged the dog right into the biology lab at school, knocked it over the head with a shovel, and hacked into him with a steak knife.
This seems like a non-story:
1. Dog was going to be put down anyway;
2. Kids who went got permission.
Really, what more do you need to know? Sounds like they took an unfortunate situation (dog menacing children needed to be put down) and tried to turn it into a positive learning situation. But, I'm sure the busy-bodies who complain would much rather that the kids do something really constructive like dissect a dead squid.
We should just dump them in garbage bags. We should pretend like everything is hunkey dorey and the only bad things that happen to little doggies and kittens is mean teachers like this.
(I don't really need a sarcasm tag, do I?)
FYI
PETA has a new nickname. They have splinter groups calling themselves PICA
Oh, goodness, keepingtrack, I wish you had joined us in that OTHER thread.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1402238/posts?q=1&&page=1#1
I see it as a perfectly acceptable activity for a high school class.
Bonus: How many of these kids will spay and neuter?
You would need a sarcasm tag on the other thread. We have PETA wackos over here.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1402238/posts?page=223#223
I was there early and received lots of hate.
The dog did not suffer... there is no way I believe this.
"Most of the students said it was a 'positive learning experience,"' Anderson said.
Hey why don't you go grab a drunk off the street, fill him full of booze and cut him up. I'm sure it would be a positive learning experience for your students.
Public education is a total failure and needs to be banned.
Honestly, I'm a biology teacher. I don't see much educational benefit to this exercise. Why not have the students come and observe a real surgery (a spay for instance).
I don't see what was gained by this particular field trip. There wouldn't be much you could observe about the digestive tract in this way (you can't see much going on frankly). There are far too many really good videos on topics like this these days. I think it was pretty much a waste of time for the students.
It sounds more like a stunt on the part of the sub (who is the mayor of a neighboring town).
susie
Why, because you don't believe they actually bothered to anaesthetize the dog?
Hey why don't you go grab a drunk off the street, fill him full of booze and cut him up. I'm sure it would be a positive learning experience for your students
DING DING DING! Orderlies! We've found another one who can't tell the difference between an animal and a person. Lock this guy up and tell him to simmer down. Threaten to do live experiments on him if he causes any more trouble.
Can the people on this thread keep in mind that the story on THE OTHER thread was obviously written to elicit exactly that type of response. They are different stories and people are going to react differently to them so get off of your PETA name calling high horses and realize that there are different reactions to differently stated stories.
People have surgery all the time with no pain until after they wake up. My wife has been vivisected three times and me once.
Hey why don't you go grab a drunk off the street, fill him full of booze and cut him up.
A drunk dog would be easier to catch.
I didn't see that one, but having read some of the comments, I'm kind of glad.
What the he!! is wrong with this country? Between the people who are "offended" over a dog being dissected, and between those who want to return us to the glory days when we believed the earth to be 7,000 years old, those of us who occupy the realm of rationality are being squeezed out by the nutcases on both sides. It really is unreal.
People, the dog was anesthetized, and the surgery was performed by a vet, in front of kids whose parents had already consented to the experience! Argh!
There are two questions here.
The first question is whether or not the activity described is ever appropriate. Given that it occurs in other contexts quite often, I'm not sure you can argue that effectively; but if you are a firm antivivisectionist, that's fine.
The second is whether or not there was any educational value to the exercise. That is frankly a matter of opinion over which people can disagree, assuming they agree on the first question.
Apparently it was the vet's idea in the first place; perhaps he thought that he would have appreciated the opportunity has a high school student himself.
Have you ever had surgery while anesthetized?? You don't feel anything, nor are you even concious!
"Hey why don't you go grab a drunk off the street, fill him full of booze and cut him up. I'm sure it would be a positive learning experience for your students."
That's just silly. On top of that, it's murder. You sound like a PETA person.
Training like this is what allows more young people to go into medicine.
--Urp--
You're are stronger than me, my friend..
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