During their third year of vet school, just before they start seeing clients' animals as fourth year students, vet students spend a semester practicing surgery on laboratory dogs. A major surgery is performed, and the dogs recover for one week, then they are anesthetized for a very major procedure (e.g. a bone may be broken and reset). The animals are killed at the end of the lab, before they would awaken from anesthesia. Some vet schools do no survival surgery at this time to spare the animals any pain. The old system at Cornell was to use one dog through a dozen weekly surgeries and euthanize her if she were seriously ill, or at the end of the course. Human medical students do no practice surgery on animals at most med schools, and they certainly do not practice on human patients that do not require surgery. Vet students in Great Britain do not practice surgeries on lab animals, instead they apprentice to an experienced vet when they graduate. Proponents of surgical training procedure point out that: 1) unlike medical students, vet students will be licensed to conduct surgery as soon as they graduate, without required internships or residencies, so they must learn techniques while at school, 2) unlike medical students, vet students would practice on their 'target species'. Every step in learning dog surgery in the lab is directly applicable to their future work; no need to extrapolate from dog to human, 3) it would be unethical for students to do their first surgeries on people's loved pets, 4) post-operative care is a vital part of surgical practice and should be part of the initial surgical training, and finally, 5) there is nothing like a living, breathing, bleeding patient to practice all aspects of anesthesia, surgery, and post-operative recovery. Opponents say that this is barbaric: 1) Students should do their first surgeries on models, or on dogs that have died or been killed for other reasons, gradually moving on to terminally ill patients donated by their owners to the college. 2) Dogs should not be expected to recover from a clumsily performed first surgery, which is certainly going to have more post-operative pain than surgery performed by a speedy, skilled experienced surgeon. Students should gradually acquire skills by assisting in necessary surgeries performed for the animal's benefit. Some students said they would rather abort their careers than to harm any more animals in pursuit of their education. Some teachers and practicing veterinarians say that students must learn to face some harsh realities, that they must do all in their power to be fully competent before they are unleashed on the pet-owning public, and that if they cannot bring themselves to kill a handful of dogs in pursuit of this competence, maybe they should get out of vet school.

Issues:

1) How much of this is an issue of student freedom of choice and autonomy, and not an animal issue at all.
2) Logistics: A class of 80 needs a lot of practice dogs in a short period of time to learn surgery. How could we rely on hit-by-car deceased dogs to provide enough practice material without extending-the length of the veterinary education?

3) Are laboratory dogs being considered some sort of second-class citizen compared to owned and loved pet dogs, that we would use on the one and not the other? Is this appropriate?

4) Is it better to do a lot of surgery on a few practice dogs, or one surgery each on severa1 practice dogs?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 The issue involves a balance between student freedom of choice and autonomy and ethical considerat... View the full answer