Cat Dissection Ends After Backlash Against ‘Jump Rope’ With Intestines

PETA Offers to Donate Humane Teaching Tools to Replace All Animal Dissection

For Immediate Release:
May 16, 2017

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Nearly a year after PETA released shocking video footage of Winston Churchill High School students “jumping rope” with intestines pulled from dissected cats, the North East Independent School District has quietly ended cat dissection in all its schools. This action, confirmed through public records, follows campaigning by PETA and an international public outcry over the video.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—has offered to donate digital resources to help the district end all animal dissection in its classrooms.

“These gruesome ‘jump rope’ videos were a sad illustration of the callousness that classroom animal dissection can foster toward living beings,” says PETA Senior Director of Youth Outreach and Campaigns Marta Holmberg. “Ending cat dissection was an important first step, and PETA stands ready to help the district replace all dissection exercises with humane and effective tools that teach both anatomy and respect for life.”

Every year in the U.S., an estimated 10 million animals are used for classroom dissection, including cats, who may have once been someone’s companion. Frogs are often taken from their homes in the wild, and other animals—such as rats and mice—are bred by the millions in biological supply houses and killed specifically for classroom dissection.

Non-animal educational tools, such as interactive computer programs, have been shown to teach biology as well as—and, in many cases, better than—dissection. They also save teachers time and money while increasing students’ confidence and satisfaction. The National Science Teachers Association endorses the use of modern, non-animal methods as replacements for dissection.

For more information, please visit PETA.org/Dissection.