Class Dissection Of Live Dog Outrages Parents, Students Student: 'It Just Makes Me Sick...'
A biology class lesson in Gunnison, Utah involving the dissection of a live dog has outraged some parents and students, according to a report.
Biology teacher Doug Bjerregaard, who is a substitute teacher at Gunnison Valley High School, wanted his students to see how the digestive system of a dog worked.
Bjerregaard made arrangements for his students to be a part of a dissection of a dog that was still alive.
The dog was still alive, but the teacher said it was sedated before the dissection began.
With the students watching, the sedated dog's digestive system was removed.
"It just makes me sick and I don't think this should go on anywhere and nobody's learning from it," student Sierra Sears said.
The teacher said the lesson would allow students to see the organs actually working.
"I thought that it would be just really a good experience if they could see the digestive system in the living animal," Bierregaard said.
The school's principal, Kirk Anderson, said notifications went to parents explaining the dog was going to be euthanized and that the experiment would be done with the dog's organs still functioning.
The teacher is standing by his decision and calls it the ultimate educational experience.
Principal Anderson said he supports the lesson and it will be allowed to continue because the students are learning.
The dog used in the experiment was going to be euthanized despite the class project.
I find this terribly disturbing. Why do high school students need to see this? I say stick with the frogs until the kids decide to go to medical school.
I could only imagine how that would have affected me to be in that class. I couldn't even handle the dead frog and luckily I had an understanding teacher that didn't make me participate.
Does it bug anyone else that this is a substitute teacher? Where is the real/permanent teacher and why is this substitute teacher getting to make decisions on stuff like this?
quote: Originally posted by: lsubatgirl " Does it bug anyone else that this is a substitute teacher? Where is the real/permanent teacher and why is this substitute teacher getting to make decisions on stuff like this?"
that was the first thing i noticed too! all my subs in HS barely knew the lesson plan, let alone making up their own. usually we would watch a movie or something... what happened to those days?
THIS MAKES ME SO. FUCKING. MAD. I CAN'T STAND IT!!!!!
If I had been a student in that class, there would have been no way that I would have allowed them to do that. I would have physically assaulted the teacher before I would have let anything happen to that poor, helpless dog! Where are the animal rights people! Why are these parents not outraged! Why has this teacher not been fired and forbidden from ever teaching again! OMG this makes me sorry to be a human being!!!
I second LMonet on the physical assault . I just WOULD NOT allow that to take place. Someone would have to restrain me, then carry me out kicking and screaming. A LIVE DOG? For God's sake! What the hell is the matter with people?
quote: Originally posted by: LMonet " Why are these parents not outraged! Why has this teacher not been fired and forbidden from ever teaching again! "
Well they didn't really talk to the parents in this article or they aren't reporting what the parents said. The article is very short and one-sided towards the teacher and principal. Has it made the tv news yet? I'm sure the parents and all the students are sitting back and enjoying this and wanting to do it again.
Is this a public or private school? If it was a private school there isn't anything that really can be done if the principal is standing behind the teacher. If its public then the school board can get involved.
It happened at a public high school. I Googled it and the story has made the news in South Africa so far, and I wouldn't be surprised if the UK press pick up on it. In fact I'm going to e-mail the UK Sun myself in a few mins, they have a tip-email address. I hope the principal and teacher responsible for this get a media roasting, even though that won't begin to make up for it. Doesn't Utah have animal cruelty laws?
I also faxed the highschool and anyone who wants the fax number (publicly posted at their website online) can PM me for it.
how is that legal? is this story really true? if it is, that's truly unethical. would it be ok to dissect a live human being on death row because they were going to die anyway? disgusting and unnecessary.
The story is definitely true, it's being reported in a lot of places and the school authorities are scrambling to try and make excuses. I just can't believe no one ever said wait a second, we can't do this...but no one did. Poor dog.
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"Don't be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Don't limit yourself in this way." - Bruce Mau
this story really upsets me. i can't even fathom that a person would be okay with dissecting a living animal. the teacher and principal are sadists, and if i were a parent i would really push to have them both removed and their licenses revoked.
I read it and it makes me absolutely sick. I hope they rot in hell.
At our school, the students are forced to dissect (dead) cats and I think it's terrible and cruel. In a way, I understand animal testing at vet schools, etc. But I work with HS kids, and there is no way those little punks learned anything except cruelty.
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"We live in an age where unnecessary things are our only necessities." --Oscar Wilde
Halleybird, at my HS it was sheep's eyeballs or frogs, depending on what class you were in, and even those two things had about half the class opting out and a ton of phone calls from parents. I know I live in Hippie-ville but a cat or dog - even a dead one - would NEVER go down here, never.
I still can't understand how this happened. You were right about what the kids learn, too. I remember in my HS science class the kids who did it (including myself, and it was the eyeball) just thought it was hilarious and the boys spent the class trying to bounce the lens around (the lens of an eye is bounsy, apparently) and (this is gross so stop reading if you don't want to be grossed out) hit various parts of the room with the fat that squirted out if you squished it the right way. We didn't learn one damn thing about anatomy.
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"Don't be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Don't limit yourself in this way." - Bruce Mau
I don't think that is right at all. Dissection of anything other than a dead frog or similar animal does not belong in high school. Even in an advanced biology class, high school students are not mature enough. If it is important for them to know, they will do it in college. I dissected a rat just moments after it was euthanized in a college biomolecular chemistry course and it was beneficial to my learning, but there is no way high schoolers can take that seriously.
I don't really care about dissecting a dead animal, it's not really my thing but whatever. But to dissect a LIVING thing? That's not only disgusting but cruel. I would have thrown a huge shitfit in my school. Of course it never would have been an option but seriously - have people no heart these days? Or is it courage of conviction? Kids these days need to listen to a little Pat Benetar to get their blood boiling. Get an emotion, please!!!
Officially disgusting and depraved. Something bad will happen to those people, I'm sure.