Take Urgent Action to End Cruel and Unnecessary Animal Dissections in Schools

Every year in the United States 10 million animals are killed to be used in classroom dissections. These animals include frogs who are captured in the wild, stray, or lost cats who are taken from animal shelters and pounds, fetal pigs who are cut from their mother’s wombs at slaughterhouses, and mice, rats, and rabbits who are often sourced from animal experimentation breeding facilities.

These animals are all killed in the name of education but according to a recent study in the leading science-education journal, The American Biology Teacher, students who use non-animal methods (NAM) perform just as well, if not better, than their fellow classmates who use animal dissection.

American taxpayers are funding the killing of these animals without providing any real benefit to students and in 29 states children do not have the right to refuse to participate in animal cruelty. 21 states have passed student choice laws that offer students penalty free alternatives to classroom exercises that harm animals, including dissections.

We believe that Congress has an obligation to protect equal educational opportunities, and this should be extended to children who morally object to participating in animal cruelty in school no matter where they live.

Take Action Now

Species Unite will be sending this letter to Representative Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, a champion for animals in Congress who serves on the House Education and Labor Committee, asking her to sponsor a bill to provide student choice in animal dissection in all fifty states. Please add your name so that we can show Representative Sherrill that we really want to see change and end cruel and unnecessary animal dissections in schools once and for all.