Cloudbuster said:

while they were still alive? AND with your eyes closed?
amazing!

JasmineFire said:

This is a good point. I'd much rather work on euthanized shelter animals than on animals who were killed just so students could cut them up (frogs, etc). The animals die either way. Might as well get some benefit from that.

hokie said:

really? and I only had frogs and crayfish in biology.. nothing bigger than frogs.. dissected up, they look like chicken lol ..

Solid points and a few giggles.


Thanks

Muse2NOPharaoh said:

you'll be fine. my very special ONE is a vet, and i killed some dogs, cats and even a horse, because i wanted to know how it is for a vet.

bboy87 said:

We did pigs in 10th grade biology class. I thought I would be freaked out but I was actually fascinated. The animal arrived clean, hairless, and preserved in a vaccum sealed bag.

There were some other feelings there too that were difficult to describe while I was doing this exam...its almost as if I felt a sense of tenderness and reverence while I was handling this little thing, and exploring the intricate machine that was inside of the body. The irony of all this is that I freaked out when we had to split open and dissect worms afterwards . Go figure

Cat ( adult ) - 6th grade
Pig ( fetus ) - 8th grade
Horse ( Fetus ) - 12th grade

Human - 2nd yr Anatomy

yeah

if you feel strongly enough about it, you can tell your instructor that you believe dissection goes against your moral or spiritual beliefs in the sanctity of all living things, and that you need to know who to speak with in order to get an alternate project. i'm sure it will be a massive pain in the ass to follow through, but there are organizations out there just waiting for instructors to tell students they have no other choice but to go through with a dissection project. personally, i wouldn't and couldn't do it. you may find that the trouble of protesting this project isn't worth just biting the bullet and getting it over with. only your own inner voice can make that decision.

Ottensen said:

I had the same experience dissecting piglets. The reason my team named ours was because we felt sort of a fondness for her. It wouldn't have felt right to be interacting every second day for a month with this little animal if we didn't have a name to call her.

meow85 said:

so what did you name her?

Anxiety said:

I think it's worth a try, but I'm also not sure it's actually possible to get through most nursing programs without eventually doing dissection. There are probably schools where you can, but you'd have to look for that going in.

It sucks.

Muse are you Pre-Med! Lord I need to hang out on the org more! What if dissecting a cat is an alternate for smaller human cadavers? If you dissect a cat it will prepare your mind for the worse. Doing this will bring to closer to your goal and give you strength for whatever may come your way. I will pray for your strength. Man, I cannot even picture something like that. I am already sick and twisted but I can't even think of cutting anything on anyone's slab. You are better than me!

ZombieKitten said:

Sunshine.

meow85 said:

I could nearly cry. I think that is very sweet.

ZombieKitten said:

Somehow naming her made the dissection process easier. I'm not squeamish, so the viscera wasn't a problem. But it felt wrong to be cutting up someone I didn't know. With a name, the piglet felt like she actually was someone, if that makes sense.

meow85 said:

I think it shows respect for her existence which although didn't matter a bit to her any more, obviously helped you.

ZombieKitten said:

I've heard of med students and mortuary workers doing the same during dissections and autopsies -calling the body by it's name, or if they don't know it, naming the person. I think it can really help the person holding the scalpel if they can see the person as one instead of just a medical model.

i did the frog and piglet thing...
buy when it came time to do university
biology and we all had a fertilized egg that
we were supposed to break open, look at and
then dump down the lab sink... i watched
someone else. couldn't bring myself to do it.
the ones before were already dead. this wasn't.


have seen the cat though. at the vet college here they do vetavision... an open house for the public.
wasn't prepared for what i would find as a little kid when i lifted that green covering!!