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Gotoh E. The current Japanese students’ activities for alternatives in veterinary education [abstract]. ALTEX. 2005;22(Special Issue):16

This paper presents the activities of “Network of Japanese Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Education”, which include Alternatives Tour in Japan in 2003, the result of questionnaires about animal use in Japanese veterinary education, on-going activities, the trend of ethical education in national veterinary universities, and our perspective and mission for the future. In Japanese veterinary education, quite a few animal experiments and related practices, which are not in line with the concept of 3Rs, are still conducted, but in recent years some changes have been observed.

Some teachers have developed alternatives to the use of animals in education and some practices that harm and kill animals have been replaced with alternatives.

Besides that, there’re increasing number of students who cannot accept or sometimes express objections to traditional harmful use of animals from their ethical standpoints

Such students began to organise groups for animal welfare within and beyond universities. The aforementioned network was established by two veterinarians in 2002. Now our network has developed nation wide. In the Alternatives Tour, voluntary members of our network held presentations of alternatives at all sixteen Japanese veterinary universities. During this tour, we distributed a questionnaire intended for students and teachers about animal use in veterinary education. We’re working for specific issues, as well as enlightening teachers and students on the concept of alternatives.

Our present goal is to establish the client donation program in Japanese universities.

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