Vegetarian being asked to dissect a cat !

[roxburin]

Oh geesh, classes have just started and ALREADY I have a problem.

You see I'm a vegetarian and my lab for Anatomy and Physiology has a part to it that is dissecting a cat. Problem is I have a respect for life and am a strict vegetarian (no leather, meat of any kind, etc.) This is part of the reason why I want to become a nurse - to help the world not hurt it. If I dissect a cat then I will be directly responsible for that cat having been killed. What should I do? The lab (as a whole) looks like it is one third of the final grade. I've already emailed the dean of students, and I'm waiting to hear back from him. I can't imagine that I'm the only one to ever have had this problem. Nursing schools weigh GPA very heavily. I want to kick ass.. any suggestions?

I can look in on others doing a dissection (as that is their own choice), but if I do it myself then I become responsible. Sigh.

Thank you in advance..

[Fun2, BSN, RN]

Thanks for the enthusiasm - this just seems like it should be another topic that you should post yourself eh? A new thread of your own that you can get all kinds of responses back from you know? Take care. I'll find out more about my own situation Monday I think.

Some things do not warrant a response. I will say this, you are new to this site, get use to the "off topic" posts.

As for your OP, if you want to kick "butt" with your GPA, just do what you have to do to make the grade, even if it's just watching someone else do the cutting.

You are going to be tested on various parts of the cat by having to identify them. You need to buckle up and say thank you to the dead cat, and learn what you need to learn, get it over with, and move on. Plant a tree in your cat's honor if it makes you feel better.

[Micci]

Guys, this is a serious issue for me. I know it is easy to get emotional about all this. Been there done that, but I'm going to sound greedy here. Please don't clutter up my thread by fighting or other issues. It just sounds like we are getting away from the point here. Or am I wrong about that? Thank you.

Oh and I do appreciate the feedback too so don't get me wrong. Take care guys.

Roxburin,

Does your college have a cadaver A&P class? Ours does. I don't know if that means they do not dissect larger animals, but maybe.

I actually didn't realize that the A&P classes were going to involve dissecting an animal like a cat. :uhoh21: I thought maybe frog.

I'm in no way shape or form a vegeterian, so this isn't really a moral issue for me. I'm not sure what you should do. The cat is already dead though, nothing you can do about that. Euthanizing cats and dogs is not going to stop today or tomorrow. Animal dissection is part of getting educated in medicine. Good luck.

[sbic56, BSN, RN]

I find the "it's already dead anyway, just do it and carry on" statements condescending and disrespectful to the OP. It's like saying, "Smarten up and just get the job done; no one cares about your belief system." Rude.

[Glimmer]

WOW... parts of this thread have gotten carried away... to the OP though:

We did cats this past semester. We had one cat for 4 students. 2 of the girls in my group were really not into touching the cat or having much to do with it. My other lab partner and I did a lot of the dissecting with the help of the teacher.

The two that did not care to help with the dissecting would watch what we were doing... or they used this wonderful reference manual that we had that had full color pictures in it. It was a pretty helpful tool. I thought that having the actual cat in front of me was a far better teaching/learning tool than the study guide thing... but I did a do a great deal of studying from that study guide.

FWIW... the cat practical was worth 50 pts out of a total 200 lab points... and a muscle exam was worth 10 pts. So the cat was a total of 60/200 pts. The whole course was graded out of a possible 1000 pts. If I had not been as active with the cat as I was and used only the study guide I doubt I would have done as well as I did (I scored a perfect 50 and 10) but I think that I certainly would have been able to pass the practical. Just a thought. I can get the name of the book if you find that your school will allow you to approach it this way instead of being active in the dissection.

Alnee

[Gompers, BSN, RN]

I find the "it's already dead anyway, just do it and carry on" statements condescending and disrespectful to the OP. It's like saying, "Smarten up and just get the job done; no one cares about your belief system." Rude.

I suppose some of us just don't understand how refusing to do the lab helps anything - the cats have already been euthenized and the school already has them - so it's not like one more cat will be saved if a single student decides to skip this lab. Maybe if every single student refused, then the school might do something different. But chances are, 95% of the students will do the lab as is. There is a serious overpopulation of cats in this country and the cats will be put down no matter what the college decides. If the school doesn't use them, the cats are still dead. Why not use their bodies to learn, and recognize that they were living, breathing, complex biological creatures - rather than letting them be used for fertilizer?

[jnette, ASN, EMT-I]

I suppose some of us just don't understand how refusing to do the lab helps anything - the cats have already been euthenized and the school already has them - so it's not like one more cat will be saved if a single student decides to skip this lab. Maybe if every single student refused, then the school might do something different. But chances are, 95% of the students will do the lab as is. There is a serious overpopulation of cats in this country and the cats will be put down no matter what the college decides. If the school doesn't use them, the cats are still dead. Why not use their bodies to learn, and recognize that they were living, breathing, complex biological creatures - rather than letting them be used for fertilizer?

Will have to respectfully (to the OP) agree with this.

Our motivation for nursing is to help PEOPLE.

Cats and ohter animals are not going to be helped by refusing to do the labs.

Sometimes we need to separate our priorities and concerns....... are we more interested in the welfare of the animals, or our future patients?

JMO :)

[over30nursestudent]

ok, I will make this quick because i promised op that I would stop the clutter on his thread. Forgive me but I can not resist!! cats similiar to humans? Last I checked I had no fangs, tail, claws, short bowel etc. The real issue is this there are many universities and colleges who don't use animals any longer. check out peta website for list of colleges and read about the real deal on animal testing. thats all i will write i am going to sit on my hands if i have to. take care all.

Believe it or not, there is a reason that cats are used for this. They are the most similar to humans (save primates) for comparison of anatomy.

Personally, I had a great deal of difficulty w/ this in anatomy. I am an animal lover and have spent my entire life caring for animals. Dissecting a human in gross anatomy was far easier than the cat in anatomy.

But trust me, the cat was not killed just for you. Our group in class decided to honor the cat: we were respectful, learned as much as we could and were thankful for her helping us w/ our progress. Same as we were for the human.

Animals are being euthanized daily, in far too high numbers for a society such as ours to be comfortable with...

IMHO, I would learn from the dissection and put my efforts into the problem of animal overpopulation.

Good luck to you.

SJ

[SusanJean]

ok, I will make this quick because i promised op that I would stop the clutter on his thread. Forgive me but I can not resist!! cats similiar to humans? Last I checked I had no fangs, tail, claws, short bowel etc. .

Anatomically. Ck the literature.

SJ

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

Interesting thread - really. :)

My first thought in seeing the title "Vegetarian being asked to dissect" was, what does being a vegetarian have to do with dissecting a cat? We don't eat cats, in the first place. In the second place, dissecting has nothing to do with not eating meat.

However after reading some of the posts I can see that choosing to be a vegetarian has many different starting points. For some it is simply a health issue - eating too much red meat is not healthy for some people. Others it may just be the "ick" factor - the idea of eating a cow or a chicken or a pig. For others it seems that it is more a religious, so to speak, decision.

Dissecting a cat would be "ick" for me just because it seems kinda gross. We dissected human beings, two each semester, man and woman. Our professor talked to us first about being respectful of the gift these folks have given and treat the bodies tenderly. I enjoyed dissection theatre even though when I first thought about dissecting humans, I never thought I would be able to do it. I ended up being a proctor in his class after that for a couple of semesters.

I guess if it is some statement you wish to make about using animals for any reason, then you have the right to make it. Remember there are consequences to what ever choice you make.

There are so many dead cats on the road up here in our rural community - many feral cats - these dead cats get tossed into the bushes to decompose back into the earth. I guess having a cat to dissect in a lab would put the cat to use in a "higher purpose" kind of way. If the cat in the lab was from a shelter and was never chosen to leave and was euthanized, then it either gets burned up or used in a lab.

I have seen some of the dissection programs on computer - pretty awesome. Maybe that is the wave of the future. Right now, it isn't.

In any case - good luck with your decision.

steph

[Micci]

I find the "it's already dead anyway, just do it and carry on" statements condescending and disrespectful to the OP. It's like saying, "Smarten up and just get the job done; no one cares about your belief system." Rude.

I didn't realize I was going to get slapped with the rude label by posting my opinion to a post asking for opinions. Why is one opinion rude and another not rude.

You know what, yes, I do think he should suck it up. Frankly, if I am in A&P class and I have to dissect a cat and someone else gets a free ride out of an intense lab due to "beliefs", then I am not going to be happy. Everyone here is competing their behinds off for very limited spots in their respective nursing programs. One grade can be the difference between getting in the program and wait list. So I do not think anyone deserves a free ride through any of their classes. I am prepared to work and do what needs to be done to get through my classes. For that matter, human beings are made of flesh, which in simple terms is... ta da... meat. Human cadavers may not come to us under the best circumstances either. They may have died due to falling through cracks in the system and ended up homeless and famliless.

The problem is not that there are cats for disection, the problem is that due to our domestication of cats and their subsequent overpopulation, they are being euthanized.

[2ndCareerRN]

The problem is not that there are cats for disection, the problem is that due to our domestication of cats and their subsequent overpopulation, they are being euthanized.

ITA, and will add. Another reason is that irresponsible humans like the kittens, but when they get older they are tossed aside for various reasons. Once that happens they are free to breed, and overpopulate areas. And when that happens other animals in the immediate ecosystem become victims.

bob

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

I didn't realize I was going to get slapped with the rude label by posting my opinion to a post asking for opinions. Why is one opinion rude and another not rude.

You know what, yes, I do think he should suck it up. Frankly, if I am in A&P class and I have to dissect a cat and someone else gets a free ride out of an intense lab due to "beliefs", then I am not going to be happy. Everyone here is competing their behinds off for very limited spots in their respective nursing programs. One grade can be the difference between getting in the program and wait list. So I do not think anyone deserves a free ride through any of their classes. I am prepared to work and do what needs to be done to get through my classes. For that matter, human beings are made of flesh, which in simple terms is... ta da... meat. Human cadavers may not come to us under the best circumstances either. They may have died due to falling through cracks in the system and ended up homeless and famliless.

The problem is not that there are cats for disection, the problem is that due to our domestication of cats and their subsequent overpopulation, they are being euthanized.

You make a very good point about human anatomy . . . we are meat, afterall.

I think the answer is everyone has to follow the same standards regarding their classes but if you choose not to, then you must simply live with the consequences of that decision.

It may be that you don't get to take the class. If it is your value system that keeps you from dissecting, then you may have to "suck it up" and realize you can't take this particular class. Maybe looking online for somewhere you can use a computer program instead is the answer.

steph