Disecting Cats

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Aug 18, 2004

I dissected a cat in high school for College Prep Anatomy. The local comm. college, does fetal pigs.

abundantjoy07, RN · Aug 18, 2004

i have dissected a fetal pig, a frog, and various organs from animals. never took apart a cat though. i've heard of it...but never done it. it should be very interesting....unless you're a big cat person, that is. :mad:

Sheleigh7 · Aug 18, 2004

We were expected to dissect cats in A & P. I refused. I'm an animal lover and there is no valid scientific reason why we should dissect cats to learn about the human body. It's leftover archaic crap. There are plenty of CD Roms, charts, models, and human bodies (who willingly gave themselves to science)to choose from. My teacher accepted my argument and I wasn't expected to participate in the dissection. Schools usually use cats because they're cheaper than cadavers. However, since cats and humans have pretty different systems its kind of pointless to use them. Sorry if I'm ranting, I just don't believe in using animals for dissection unless you're training to be a vet.

snuggy · Aug 18, 2004

I dissected a cat my junior year in high school A&P. It really wasn't that bad, but I couldn't really figure out what it had to do with the human anatomy. ::shrugs::

GDeppe · Aug 18, 2004

Yes we did use cats in A & P in college. I am a big cat lover and thought I would have a problem with it(was also pregnant at the time) The kitty cats still had fur on the the heads, feet and tails (so you could tell what color they were) Anyway - our instructor pointed out that they only used ones that had died of natural causes. She even pointed out, if she could tell, in the individual one what they had died from. Mine had a twisted intestine. After the initial shock of the smell when you pull it out of the bag , I kinda forgot what I was working with.

Ginger in FL

snuggy · Aug 18, 2004

Ginger, you're fortunate. We had to skin ours.

Sheleigh7 · Aug 18, 2004

Sorry to resume my ranting again :) However, I did alot of research on this subject for my research writing class. My teacher also told me that the cats died natural deaths, were pound animals and had to be euthanized etc. etc. However this is not the case the majority of the time. A significant amount of cats are obtained through more nefarious means. Here is one link regarding this subject.

http://www.sniksnak.com/aavs3.html

TLC RN · Aug 18, 2004

I think I did a pig in HS, then a cat & earth worm in college. The at another school we used human cadavers. We did not dissect them but still had to touch them.

RedSox33RN · Aug 18, 2004

We were expected to dissect cats in A & P. I refused. I'm an animal lover and there is no valid scientific reason why we should dissect cats to learn about the human body. It's leftover archaic crap. There are plenty of CD Roms, charts, models, and human bodies (who willingly gave themselves to science)to choose from. My teacher accepted my argument and I wasn't expected to participate in the dissection. Schools usually use cats because they're cheaper than cadavers. However, since cats and humans have pretty different systems its kind of pointless to use them. Sorry if I'm ranting, I just don't believe in using animals for dissection unless you're training to be a vet.

Good for you! I've never dissected an animal for A&P either.

There was a big "uproar" at one of the high schools around here a couple years ago, with students refusing to dissect any fetal pigs or cats. Instead, the science dept. researched it, and found some interactive software that was actually cheaper for them (no buying the animals, storage, chemicals, etc. - and they already had the computers) to do, and the students, by some standards, received MORE out of it. They could go back and "put a part back in", whereas when something is dissected with a cat, you obviously can't.

I am truly a software believer when it comes to this. It borders on the barbaric when there IS a much better alternative in software.

Sheleigh7 · Aug 19, 2004

Thanks for your support Whitney. It's good to hear that there's someone else out there who believes the same as I! Dissection is the main reason I avoided advanced bio in high school and why I pushed off becoming a nurse for so long.

jenrninmi, MSN, RN · Aug 19, 2004

No, we didn't dissect cats, we had human cadavars. Although we had this before entering the nursing program.

I don't understand why all the nursing programs are so different around the country. Why is it that some programs don't even have you starting Anatomy until after getting admitted into the nursing program? Pathophysiology, Microbiology, Genetics...shouldn't they be taken and passed before applying for a nursing program?? That would explain a lot of failures in my opinion. Any other opinions on this subject?