Ask University Grants Commission to reduce the use of animal dissection in zoology

Following pressure from PETA India and a letter from Rahul Bose, the expert committee of the University Grants Commission (UGC) has recommended that colleges reduce the use of animal dissection in zoology/life-science courses and work towards the implementation of non-animal teaching methods. The expert committee also recommended that undergraduate students "should not do any dissection". While reducing the use of animals in zoology/life-science courses is a positive first step, this matter is too urgent to allow animal dissections and experiments to be phased out gradually instead of eliminated immediately.

Science is the study of life and should therefore teach respect for life – a lesson that cannot be learned when living beings are treated as disposable objects and callously killed. By using modern, humane teaching methods, instructors can teach both science and ethics simultaneously.

In fact, the many non-animal teaching methods that are available are superior to the use of animals in science education. Non-animal techniques – including computer simulations, interactive CD-ROMs, films, charts and lifelike models – are generally more technologically advanced than animal-based lessons, and they teach life sciences more effectively. Besides being cruel, dissection can have a devastating impact on the environment by decimating wild populations of insects and amphibians. Formaldehyde, a chemical used to preserve biological specimens is toxic to humans and has been linked to cancer.

You Can Help
Please write to the UGC chair and urge him to immediately and completely cut dissection from college curricula.