Dissect a cat?!

casi, ASN, RN · Oct 1, 2005

I haven't had to disect anything yet, but my A&P teacher has a thing for bringing in disected cats to show us different things, like last week he brought in a cat to show us the muscles. It really isn't that bad. Your to busy looking at the insides to really think about what the animal is. If you aren't in A&P yet, maybe talk to the teachers at your school and see what's on their sylabis. Some teachers at my school have their classes disect cats while others do fetal pigs.

lalajenn · Oct 1, 2005

Some schools, like mine, have different A&P which one is where you don't dissect a cat and the higher number A&P you do dissect a cat. I chose the one where I didn't have to dissect.

twin#2 · Oct 1, 2005

Ok, I know I'm a wuss but if any of you have had to do this for an A&P class, how did you survive? I almost think I could chuck my whole career decision to avoid having to do this. Almost.
Any advice? :uhoh21:

Icould never dissect a cat; my litte fur person is on my lap now; we did have to dissect a mink & we had a 20 yr dead guy to learn from; as a card carring member of the ASPCA, Humane soceity etc.. I draw the lines @ companion animals (I didn't like dissecting the mink, either but I knew they were farm raised & would have suffered a cruel death for someones fur coat)

Diana "the best things in life are furry"

2spr0ut02 · Oct 1, 2005

in high school i had an animal lover anatomy & biology teacher. the class had animals everywhere---snakes, spiders, african mice, porcupines, ferrets, rabbits, birds, a scorpion and maybe something else i forgot. anyway although he loved animals he made us dissect a cat, frog, starfish, and a worm. i missed the class in 8th grade that did a pig. and at my college we have cadavers. its supposedly the only school in the state with them. in high school at first i was grossed out but i loved anatomy so much i dove right in.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Oct 1, 2005

You could go to the dean and say you're a vegan animal rights activitist and ask for another assignment when they dissect cats. It has been done before.

Fortunately in my A&P lab there was no dissecting. But we dissected pigs fetuses in high school. The smell to me more than the fact I was cutting up a dead animal. After all there are dead animals on my dinner plate every day.

twin#2 · Oct 1, 2005

I must not be too literate c this program; I've been an RN for 10 years & I thought I was replying to moonbeams mom who is in school, I am a Vegan & passionate animal rights advocate etc..

Diana "the best things in life are furry"

Dan's Sunshine · Oct 1, 2005

I love cats. All my life I have had cats as pets. That said - I dissected a cat for A&P in high school. We worked on it for 1 whole semester. Each pair had their own cat. It was not bad. I actually enjoyed it. If you have moral issues you may want to speak to someone to see if you can do something else. I am sure you won't be the first person to object. Maybe they have an alternative for you.

Good luck

Dan's Sunshine · Oct 1, 2005

Forgot something - I had trouble eating chicken for about a year after that experience. Grossed me out to see the meat pull apart. Ugh - now I won't be eating chicken this week either.

Megg6483 · Oct 1, 2005

I had to dissect a cat as well in high school actually in an advanced Bio class and at the time I thought there was no way that I would be able to do it, along with about 10 other people who thought for sure we wouldn't do this... but after you see it initially, it is not that bad... it is such a learning experience and i ended up Loving it!!!! I felt bad for the cat of course but it was already a dead cat, they don't kill the cats for this purpose, they use cats that are sick already or already deceased... so just try to see it as such an amazing learning experience.. my cat had worms and we actually got to dissect the stomach and see them.. it was a great learning tool!!! Think about how much we learn from something like this, not about the cat itself... and from doing this you will learn and ultimately just enhance your nursing career... its all a cycle... and this is just part of it that you must do... it will be just fine, you will be great!!!!!!!!!!

prmenrs, RN · Oct 1, 2005

We had a thread recently in which this topic was discussed thoroughly.

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116942&highlight=dissection

moonbeamsmom · Oct 2, 2005

We had a thread recently in which this topic was discussed thoroughly.
https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116942&highlight=dissection

Wow, that was a very intense thread. :lol2: Glad I missed it!

But I guess I will just have to suck it up or take A&P elsewhere. I'll just have to slap on the Vicks Vaporub, think really negative thoughts about cats, and keep repeating "this too shall pass" over and over.