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Animal experiments thing of the past at Ormonde College
A LEADING Kilkenny educational facility has come up with a novel and ethical way of providing students with all they need to know about the physical make up of animals, without hurting them.
Biology experiments, including the dissection of frogs and other little creatures have ceased at Kil-kenny's Ormonde College of Further Education thanks to the use of computer-based simulations and three-dimensional models, pioneered by Patrizia Setola, co-ordinator of the Animal Care course at the College.
"Too often our use of animals, particularly for dissection in scientific research reinforces a simplistic view that any manipulation of animals constitutes science," she said.
Patrizia, originally from Italy, is championing alternative approaches to science teaching that does not use dissection of animals but is based on CD-ROM- based computer simulations and 3-D models.
"My position is peculiar; I co-ordinate a course in animal care here at the College that encourages students to explore ethical approaches to animal care. I also take the same class for a module in Animal Anatomy and Physiology which requires a degree of scientific investigation of animal systems traditionally taught using the dissection of animals.
It may seem a contradiction but she points to Sweden and Norway where dissection is rarely practiced prior to degree level. "Yet these two countries rate very highly in terms of scientific literacy," she pointed out.
She also referred to EU directives that permits dissection procedures only if their objective cannot be achieved by comparably effective audiovisual or other suitable methods.
"At Ormonde College we are working towards a policy of not using animals unnecessarily for educational research," she said.
"We would be happy to provide a forum for hosting a debate on the subject with teachers of science throughout the country," she added.
According to Patrizia there are wider issues at stake. "Science education, like science itself is value- laden rather than value free. A syllabus may be sensitive to the welfare and ethics of animal treatment but a teacher who is indifferent towards these issues may communicate this to his/her students," she said.
"Imagine a situation where a student expresses concern for an animal, the subject of dissection or another form of scientific research. That student may be labelled sentimental or unscientific," she said.
"Concerns of this nature expressed by a student cannot be simply interpreted as squeamishness and students should not be pressurised into participation in procedures that they find distasteful.
"Ormonde College currently employs audio-visual approaches and the aim is to mainstream these approaches so that they become the norm rather than an alternative," she said.
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