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I've refused to dissect everything but feces. Everyone else refused to dissect the feces.

The only thing I'd dissect is someone I don't like.

And that's only If I can use a hatchet.

I'm extremely surprised that you're comparing the study of human cadavers (which obviously were collected from people who died of other causes) to animal dissection, in which animals are very often raised and killed solely to be cut up by a thirteen-year-old.

I'm extremely surprised that you're comparing leashing an animal to killing it for dissection purposes. 'Nuff said there, I think.

"There is no better way to learn?" Name three parts of the insect you dissected that the general public wouldn't recognize and the importance of their function. When I opted out of my classroom dissections (yes, dissections - our Biology class dissected six different animals over a period of just a few months), I asked my friends what they'd done in class. Common response? "OMG, it was gross ... [body part] spilled out everywhere ... [classmate] made it twitch by poking its leg ... we thought it was a girl, but we couldn't find the organ or anything."

I watched a videotape of the SAME dissections. The video showed each dissection performed by a professional (generally on two animals - a male and a female). The professional, of course, was able to locate and describe all of the organs without mutilating the body too heavily. It was more educational than I can ever imagine it would be if it were my fellow teen dicing up the animals.

I'm sorry, but it just doesn't make sense to me... and your dissection seems infinitely more pointless than one on a cat. How often to vets operate on insects?

It should also be noted that in most cases, the animal bodies are purchased from a company (such as Carolina Biological Supply) that profits from raising and killing animals for the sole purpose of dissection. As with most other animal industries, abuse is not uncommon. I can certainly see how animals which have died of natural causes should be at least put to use to train vets, but I don't see how you can "hope" others aren't morally against the industry behind most dissections.

I got this horrid lab where we had to kill goldfish banned
but the teach said they didnt have the equitment to make it "more human"

angoraphobia - when i was in seventh grade my class used the virtual frog. i was still eating meat at the time, but there was no way i was going to cut up a real one.

if you don't want to dissect an animal, you shouldn't have to. i don't think that the school is really going to give you a failing grade if you pressure them enough. there are lots of things you can do: you can claim it's against your beliefs (religious or moral), you can get help from a local animal rights group (they would be much more experienced and the school would be more likely to bow to a group than a student that they think they have dominion over), or you could just call your local news. schools are tax payer supported (and the private ones are funded by parents) so the prospect of looking bad on tv and pissing off the people that pay their bills really hits home. sometimes all it takes is one nine o'clock news report to get your way. also, you could just try to rally support at your school. you may be the only vegetarian, but you might be surprised at the amount of non-veggies that disagree with dissection. you'll probably get a lot of support from people that don't really care about the animal, but just think it's "icky". i certainly wouldn't have dissected a cat before i went vegan. then you have the lazy people that just don't want to do schoolwork... try asking around at your school and see how many others don't want to do it. even a small amount of people can create a hell of a stir.

I was supposed to dissect a frog last year, but I refused! I just went up to the teacher and told her that it was against my moral principles, and she let me do a power point instead.

I am totally against this kind of dissection, where animals are born and raised on farms to be killed for dissection in schools (the frogs at our school were raised on farms for this purpose). The very concept I find to be extremely twisted and immoral. What's even more repulsive, the whole entire year, the dead frogs were sitting in boxes in the classroom just waiting to be cut.

I think you should just tell your teacher that you have humanitarian issues with animal dissection. Someone can't force you to do something against your moral beliefs!

I did not refuse to dissect animals in any of my classes. I do think that alternatives should be given though. Alternatives were never mentioned in highschool even though there were people opposed to dissecting. I don't mind dissecting if the animal has died naturally. Our teachers told us that they were not killed for dissection. I don't know if that was true or not. I have dissected a cat, worm, hag fish, and a shark.

In my college zoology class we did not buy animals for dissection. What our assignment was, if you find a dead animal we could use it. A lot of animals that were hit by cars and left on the side of the road were what we used. Sorry if this sounds kind of sick.

I've dissected worms, and then piglets. I wasn't vegetarian at the time, but I felt so bad about it. I think we had the option of opting out of the dissecting pigs, mostly because some people get sick from the smell they've sat in to keep them, er, "pickled". (can't remember what it was).

It's odd to think that they've gave us that option though, because it was a small town/beef country. But my science teacher had said before we started, that we must show respect for the animal and only use it's body for research and studying. If he saw anyone taking the piglet and using it like a puppet (or anything really rude) he would send them out of the class.

But I still think schools should start opening up more virtual type dissections instead of real ones.