When students at a high school Participation In Government class were asked to invite outside speakers to discuss controversial issues, I accepted the opportunity to discuss why I believe our educational institutions should stop purchasing animal “specimens” for teaching biology and should instead use life-like models with removable parts and/or interactive computer programs.

I quoted a student who explained to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: “I passed geography without leaving my home state and geology without seeing planets collide. It’s insulting to argue that students can’t understand anatomy unless they stick a scissors into a frog’s brain.”

I showed the class a PETA video, “Classroom Cut-Ups” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNJNfFXtkYc), which depicted, among other abominations, employees at a dissection supply house embalming animals from cats to crabs, while they were still alive. Frogs usually are dropped into an alcohol solution, which takes about 20 agonizing minutes to cause death.

According to Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, the formaldehyde that is utilized to kill animals used for dissection and to preserve their bodies endangers biology students because formaldehyde is a carcinogenic irritant to human eyes, skin, throats, lungs and nasal passages. And once the dissection lessons are completed, the animals’ remains that are disposed of in landfills leach harmful chemicals that infiltrate our drinking water.

The National Association of Biology Teachers, the National........

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