Sometimes schools urge students to cut up dead frogs, worms, pigs, and cats in dissections or keep rabbits, guinea pigs, and other small animals as caged classroom “pets.” But are animals really just “tools” like No. 2 pencils—cheap and disposable? No way!
Hatch a Plan to Help Chicks
Are chick-hatching projects all they’re cracked up to be? Chicks can carry diseases like E. coli, salmonella, and the West Nile virus. And many schools don’t realize that caring for little birds is a huge responsibility. Chicks in classrooms often don’t get the care they need, and many grow sick and deformed.
Finding homes for them when the project is over isn’t easy—animal shelters are already full of homeless dogs and cats, and commercial farmers, worried that chicks could sicken their flocks, won’t take them, so many birds are just killed.
Any Bunny Want to Be Teacher's "Pet"?
Animals are sometimes cooped up in small cages in classrooms to teach students about “responsibility” and animal behavior. But kids are busy with schoolwork, and in the day-to-day rush, classroom “pets” often get forgotten. Sometimes they’re outright abused, like the dozens of gerbils who were stomped on by some mean students and the chick who was thrown against a wall after innocently pecking someone.
Is it fair for schools to buy animals and then ask students to take over their care at the end of the year? That’s what often happens, and many students have other plans for their summer breaks, or their parents won’t allow a new addition to the household. Sometimes, animals are just left at the school, which means they don’t get enough attention, food, water, or care. Some even die.
Karate Chop Classroom Cut-Ups
Every year, thousands of students stand up for their rights and refuse to take part in classroom dissections. They don’t think that animals should be killed just so that students can cut them up. PETA investigators also found that dissection supply companies have drowned rabbits and gassed cats.
What do you think? Should we still be dissecting animals when there are computer programs and other alternatives that studies have shown teach anatomy just as well?
• Learn more about dissection and alternatives at PETAKids.com or by ordering a free “Cut Out Dissection” kit from PETA.
• Instead of a chicken-hatching plan, suggest Egg: A Photographic Story of Hatching by Robert Burton, a book that uses photos to show the entire process. Order it from PETABookStore.com.
• If you know an animal who’s being kept in a classroom, contact PETA’s Education Department (757-622-PETA, extension 1450) and tell us what kind of animal is being kept and the school’s address. We’ll talk to the school about humane alternatives.
