Almost 90 percent of emergency medicine residency programs in the United States have stopped using live animals to train students, instead using humane methods like human simulators.
But the University of South Carolina (USC) School of Medicine is not one of them. Its emergency medicine students use live pigs to practice procedures. They cut into the pigs' throats, chest cavities and veins to insert tubes and needles. They split open the breastbones to access the hearts in order to practice cardiac procedures.
The pigs that don't survive these training sessions are killed.
This is especially cruel considering that USC is home to the state-of-the-art Palmetto Health-University of South Carolina School of Medicine Simulation Center -- with "high-fidelity patient simulators and advanced technology" -- which should eliminate the need for using live animals.
With humane, alternative methods for training students available right there on its campus, there is no reason USC should continue to kill animals.
Please sign and share this petition asking the university to stop using live pigs to train emergency medicine students.
Dear Dr. Gerard and Members of the IACUC,
I am writing to urge you to stop using live pigs to train emergency medicine students.
In addition to being unethical, practicing procedures on live pigs does not provide the students with accurate training since the animals are not like humans.
The patient simulators in your state-of-the-art Palmetto Health-University of South Carolina School of Medicine Simulation Center are a humane alternative that should eliminate the need to use live animals.
Nearly 90 percent of other emergency medicine residency programs in the U.S. have shown compassion by no longer using live animals. Please join them.
