End the Use of Live Pigs for Training at Baystate Medical Center
posted by: alicia graef 30 days ago
There are only a few programs left that use live animals for their Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) courses and Baystate Medical Center in Massachusetts is one of them.
Baystate Medical Center is currently using pigs for its trauma sessions, which the hospital is justifying by claiming this is the best way to teach students.
This week the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine filed a complaint with the USDA, claiming that Baystate Medical Center is violating the Animal Welfare Act, which requires facilities to use alternatives when available.
According to PCRM, 90 percent of schools offering this program use non-animal models like the TraumaMan System (which Baystate owns!), Synman, and human cadavers for these courses. These alternatives have also been approved by the American College of Surgeons.
The study Dying to Learn: Exposing the Supply of Dogs and Cats to Higher Education also found that both medical and veterinary students can learn just as well through alternative teaching methods that can include hands on training at shelters for vet students and simulators for medical students.
Some from the medical community have also spoken out against using live animals for this type of training. Dr. Edward Linkner, a former student at the University of Michigan’s School of Medicine spoke out about this practice in the Detroit Free Press. He refused to participate in the dog lab while he was a student and stated that, “it was clear that using live dogs to practice critical procedures meant for human patients is unnecessary and inhumane--and it does not give participants an accurate understanding of human anatomy.”
Read more: medicine, animal welfare, pcrm, animal rights, trauma man
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Why can't they just use virtual simulation equipment to train?
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It appears Diane Decker is an animal bigot. Not a racist, but perhaps a speciesist?
How can anybody compare the life of a BIGOT to the life of a human (bigots being human is, IMO, questionable), or other cute animals like dogs & cats? Or even chimps & monkeys? We're talking about bigots here. They are the lowliest animals on the face of this plant, & the ugliest, most disgusting beasts that exist. They are only good for the food they pass on as sewage to keep the water treatment and septic tank pumping people employed. I'd rather have a pet pig. At least they are somewhat cute.
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To Diane Decker:
Your comment has just been reported due to the severity of prejudice it contains. Care2 is not intended to be a hateful place - that would defeat the purpose of it.
I highly recommend you read some articles on kindness and compassion toward all beings great and small. It may do your heart a world of good.
Bless your heart.
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obviously this broad knows nothing of what she speaks .the only reason they are dirty is you get farmers who are too lazy to clean there pens and there intelligence is well know.cute?? when i was a kid,cute mean you were cross-eyeed and bowlegged.do the shoes fit maybe in this case ? is she cute?? thanks Alicia
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Dianne,
How sad that you are so hateful and vicious towards pigs. They have the intelligence of a 5 year old child, are social, friendly, and are very clean. They have been known to rescue humans that are sick or injured. Sad that people like you have the wrong idea about them. They are abused and brutally slaughtered, all so humans can stuff their faces with unhealthy animal flesh. Where is your compassion? Do you not have a soul? This medical facility should not be using these defensless animals in their trauma training classes. End of story!
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I was raised among animals all my life, they are all
beautiful......
It is the humans that are ugly.......
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If Diane Decker has not seen the movie "Babe", then I recommend that she or anyone who doesn't appreciate pigs should see that film immediately. I would also recommend a visit to Farm Sanctuary, in Watkins Glen, NY or some other sanctuary that does pig rescues and maybe she would develop a greater appreciation for them as living sentient beings that think, feel and suffer pain and trauma. And their intelligence is on the same level as dogs - probably even higher than some dogs! Even George Clooney had a vietnamese pot-bellied pig that he let sleep in his bed. Despite Judaic and Muslim precepts about pigs being "unclean", they only like to wallow in mud to stay cool (since they don't have sweat glands) but generally they are at least as clean as other animals - and even cleaner than some people. Personally, I love pigs and think they're beautiful, especially the piglets.
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Maybe Diane Decker looks like a pig,if she thinks ugliness is the determining factor on whether an animal is killed or not.
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So you base the value of a life on how cute that being is? How very sad for you. The ironic thing is that they are nowhere as ugly as the very apparent ugliness you have inside you and impart upon the world.
You should be ashamed of yourself!
I hope you or anyone you love is never disfigured to the point someone finds them ugly and suggests they be tortured and/or killed simply because they find them not to be "cute"!
---------Diane Decker says
How can anyone compare the life of a PIG, to the life of a human, or other cute animals like dogs & cats? Or even chimps & monkeys? We're talking about pigs here. They are the lowliest animals on the face of this plant, & the ugliest, most disgusting beasts that exist. They are only good for the food they provide for consumption by other beings. I'd rather have a pet rat. At least they are somewhat cute.
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To all those who spoke negative about the pigs I hope you become a test subject one day.
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