Hennepin County Medical Center: Stop Using Live Animals to Teach Human Medicine

PCRM HCMC2As part of World Week for Animals in Labs, ARC is partnering with Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) in asking Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) to stop using live animals to teach human medicine to emergency medicine residents. HCMC is using live rabbits and sheep for procedures including making incisions into an animal’s throat to insert a breathing tube, inserting needles into the chest to remove fluid surrounding the heart, splitting open the breast bone to access the heart, and drilling holes into the skull. If the animal dies while on the operating table, the procedure continues. If the animal survives, he or she is killed following the training session. HCMC is approved to use up to 300 rabbits and sheep per year.

This animal use is at odds with current standards of practice. According to PCRM, today 88 percent of surveyed emergency medicine residency programs in the U.S (119 out of 135) use nonanimal training methods. Please take action and ask HCMC to end this educationally inferior and inhumane practice by making the switch to simulation – because Minnesota deserves better.

ARC volunteers will be leafleting at HCMC, 730 S 8th St. in Minneapolis on Thursday, April 28 during prime rush hour from 4:00-6:00 p.m. Please join us! Leaflets will be provided. If you’ve never leafleted, it’s a quick and easy way to reach a large number of people in a short time.