Advocates urge MU School of Medicine to stop use of live animals during student training
By Madison Steward
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COLUMBIA, Missouri (KOMU) — Members of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine gathered outside Memorial Union on MU’s campus Thursday to protest the School of Medicine’s use of live animals during training.
According to the committee’s campaign website, “live pigs are used to teach procedures to emergency medicine residents. Trainees are instructed to cut into the animal’s throat, chest, and abdominal cavity to insert needles and tubes, and to spread the ribs in order to access the heart. If the animals survive the invasive procedures, they are killed before the final procedure is performed.”
Members of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine protested Thursday against the use of live animals in student training.
MU spokesperson Christian Basi said the medical school only uses live animals in training on rare occasions, when they deem it necessary.
“We have a world-class simulation center that we use to train emergency residents on, and it’s used for most of our emergency medical training,” Basi said. “However there are a few rare instances where we feel that there is a need to use live animals.”
The committee claims that 97% of emergency medicine programs do not use animals for testing. The group delivered 52,454 petition signatures to UM System President Mun Choi Thursday to urge MU to follow in the other programs’ footsteps.
The campaign also includes the installation of two billboards on Interstate 70 through Columbia that state, “Missouri: Does your doctor think you’re a pig?”
Dr. Kerry Foley is a retired physician who works with the committee. She says that using live animals for these trainings is not only cruel but isn’t the most beneficial way for students to learn.
“The use of simulators is really the wave of the future and has become the norm. If you learn how to do a surgical procedure on an animal, then you get one shot, and you better have learned it,” Foley said. “If you learn it on a simulator, it has replaceable skin and muscle, and you can do it over and over again until you’ve mastered the skill.”
Basi said the university uses about six animals a year for the trainings.
“The university is always looking for ways to train without using animals, and over the years, we have been able to reduce that number,” he said.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says its goal is for the university to use zero live animals during these trainings.
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