dissecting cats

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Anyone have any advice on how to get through A&P with the dissecting of cats? I am a huge cat lover and am already stressing over this. Surely someone else has felt this way. There are no other schools around here that use anything else except for cats. Any advice would be most helpful. Thanks.:clown:

In my class the cat dissection was sort of extra credit. You didn't have to dissect the cat, if you did do it and labeled all the parts they asked you to you got extra credit for it, if you didn't do it you weren't penalized.

You did have to know where certain organs, vein, etc. were on the cat though for lab tests. The professor put numbered flags on different things on a cat that was dissected by a lab assistant. The flags had #'s and you had to name what ever it was (not multiple choice, but fill in the blank).

I started to dissect the cat but but didn't finish because I found it to be more helpful to study the cat already dissected by the lab assistant. They did a better job than any students, plus the cat had been preserved for a longer period of time making it more dried out and easier to view things.

Plus I couldn't stand the formaldehyde smell, it gave me a headache.

We did not have to "skin" the cat it came skinned with the exception of the ears, tail, and paws.

We did have to name our cat though.

I have two pet cat's and have to say that seeing the dead cat wasn't nearly as bad as the smell.

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Hope no one minds me bumping up this old thread. It's been great reading everyone's point of view, I'm glad I'm not the only one that doesn't want to support the unnecessary use of animals in dissection labs! I just registered for my first semester of pre-nursing courses and will eventually be taking 2 required A&P courses before I can petition to get into the nursing program. I know that the second course includes a cat, as well as a human cadaver according to the class description. I'm apprehensive of theses classes because of the non-human dissection subjects. I am vegan, so I do my very best to avoid using animals in any way; I don't eat them, I don't wear them, I stick to cruelty-free personal care products and cleansers, and I don't support the use of animals in entertainment. I do have a dog that I adopted from rescue and we foster dogs for a rescue org, so I guess I do "use" animals for companionship. I do not consider dogs (or any other animal for that matter) to be mere chattel property as they are deemed in the eyes of the law. I consider them refugees of the domestication/ownership system by no choice or fault of their own, and I'm just trying to help out in any way I can. Anyway, about the only area I'm regularly forced to deal with participating in animal exploitation is accessing modern Western medicine for any sort of treatment. I have actually put off the idea of pursuing nursing as a career for years, partially because of this aspect. Finally I have decided that this is what I really want to do despite this. Nursing will be a second career for me and after thinking about it long and hard I am convinced it is a really great fit. And besides, if people that think like me just sit off on the sidelines and don't make some waves, things will never change.

So, I have procured a copy of Vivisection and Dissection in the Classroom: A Guide to Conscientious Objection by Francione and Charlton, and am exploring dissection alternatives (animalearn.org has some great resources, including a model pregnant cat you can borrow for free!) so I will be well prepared when I'm ready for those courses. I think someone mentioned going to a particular school because they don't require dissection. I never thought of it before, but I guess I could seek out a school specifically for these courses if it doesn't work out at the school I'm enrolled in currently. I do hope it doesn't come to that! With the human cadaver being included in the course work it seems especially frivolous that the cat is included as well. Wish me luck.

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Just force yourself to forget the fact that it's a companion animal and think of it in a clinical sense. I got over the initial aww, pooor (insert cuddly cute creature name here) pretty quickly once I realized how cool it was to be able to identify organs I'd previously only seen in textbooks.

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i like all animals but i took a&p in high school we had to dissect cats as well.at first,i wanted to cry seeing a dead cat about to be cut up by me.but after that part,cat dissections are really fun!and you will learn so much about the muscles and organs and all of that stuff.:yeah:

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This isn't about how I feel about the cat. This about the cat's right as an individual sentient being to not be used as though s/he were a mere object. I do not wish to participate in dissecting a cat (or any other non-human animal) because it supports the status quo of animals being regarded as possessions which humans can do with as they wish for any reason.

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

I hear you. How can you reconcile that w/the requirements of the course? And meeting your ultimate goal?

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The way I see it, the goal of these courses should be to learn human anatomy. After all, I ultimately want to be a nurse that works with humans. I understand that there are a lot of similarities between the A & P of humans and other animals, that is why they can be used as teaching tools, but I don't think it's necessary to use actual non-human dissection subjects when there are so many alternatives that will allow me to learn the same material. I have some research and planning to do yet, but I am going to try to negotiate acceptable alternative work that I can do instead. I think participating in the human cadaver dissection work will be interesting and relevant, but I don't really see the need to dissect any other species.

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You have to look at it from a medical standpoint. I attended a veterinary technician school a couple of years ago, and of course we had to dissect animals (cats in particular). Obviously, I love animals. I treat my own as if they were my children. However, I had to use that experience to learn. Just treat the cat's body in a humane and respectful way.

I do have to add that I do agree with shananigansWI. It would be nice if more schools had access to human cadavers. We had to dissect a fetal pig, a sheep's eye and brain in my APHY 101 and 102 classes.

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I was the original poster, and my daughter, as of today, finished anatomy with flying colors. Lucky for her it was a fetal pig which made it a little easier. It was much easier to do than she thought it would be. What a relief! There was lots of good advice on this post. One she thought would have been really helpful if needed was to just cover the parts of the animal not being dissected with a cloth so you didn't see the "whole" animal at one time. I think if it was a cat she would have done that. Thanks for all of the advice and I hope others benefit from it as well. Good luck to you all!

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I was lucky, we're not dissecting the cat in our class. Our professor is just going to show us a dissected one already to save us some time.

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I just wanted to chime in with an update here. I'm almost done with A&P 2 and haven't participated in any of the labs involving non-human dissection subjects. My instructors were very understanding and allowed me to cover the material using models, pictures, diagrams, and work with the human cadavers. I'm still holding down my 4.0 in all prereq classes and heading into a great BSN program in the fall. So glad I was able to stick to my guns and achieve my goal at the same time. :)

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I have to dissect a cat?! Wow! I had no idea. This ought to be...er...um...interesting.

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