Studies Database

Ruiz Torres L. Alternatives to animal testing in the faculty of veterinary medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Paper presented at: The Three Rs - Together it's possible. 8th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences; 2011 Aug 21-25; Montreal, Canada

The use of non-human animals is the most accepted way to obtain knowledge and psychomotor skills needed for future professionals in the academic system. The UNAM is not the exception and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine mistreats non-human animals in different ways causing pain, stress and injury. In recent years, there have been doubts in the minds of many students and teachers about the unethical way the medicine principles are being taught and they are forced to commit these acts of abuse against animals, feeling their sensitivity and moral or ethical principles violated, and therefore their integrity. Dissections and/or vivisection send the wrong message to students. Instead of learning the anthropocentric and specist values, which claim that non-human animals are the subject of moral consideration, they learn that life is disposable and that nonhuman animals can be used at will. Consciously or unconsciously these acts remain qualities such as sensitivity and compassion to the future professionals. The alternatives are ethical educational media and should completely replace the harmful use of non-human animals and be used in combination to achieve the educational objectives. The use of alternative methods allows the acquisition of the desired knowledge plus ethics and respect for life should be the trend to continue throughout the world. This work considers the ethical conflicts which students enter as they are forced to harm animals and their right to conscientious objection, and provides proposals of the existing methods to replace the use of animals in education.

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