The words in the title are those of a former student at Culpeper High School in Virginia. Her name is Brynnan. She was a new student at the school at the time. At home, she is very close to the family cat Sparta. Clearly, she loves her cat and has an emotional connection to her cat companion.
I’m sure that in the anatomy class, which she was keen to attend, there were also a good number of other students who are emotionally connected to the family cat. And yet, despite this being obvious to anybody with a modicum of intelligence, the school wanted her to skin and dissect the carcass of a cat which may well have been someone’s pet and which may well have been euthanized at a local shelter.
In a bizarre twist, the schoolteacher conducting the anatomy class told the students that if they had a black cat at home they should pick a white cat from the dead cats which were available to them and vice versa in order to, I suppose, dissociate themselves from the emotional connection that they have with their own cat. As if that suggestion would make it easier for the students.
“The teacher told us if we have a black cat at home, pick a white cat and vice versa. Like the colour of their fur changes how I feel about ripping the fur from a cat who, no matter what, will remind me of my baby Sparta!” (Brynnan when speaking to her mother).
Her mother, Tamira Thayne, was horrified and has started a petition on the change.org website to request that the Culpeper County Public Schools, the school in question and others, ban cat dissection in their classrooms.
Her mother had to make a very difficult decision. As mentioned, her daughter had recently started a new school and therefore she did not want to kick up a fuss and quite possibly be alienated by other students and create friction with the teachers and administrators. That would have made matters worse. The alternative was to allow her daughter to carry on dissecting a cat in the anatomy class which was traumatic to her daughter.
In the event, her mother decided, reluctantly, to pull her daughter from the school and I presume to find a new school for her. The mother wisely states that her first duty is to protect her daughter.
As an outsider, I find the decision of the particular school in question and the education authorities in this area to insist that students dissect cats to be wholly incorrect, insensitive and thoughtless. Although it has to be admitted that some students don’t care and disrespect the cat reflecting an attitude amongst some sections of society which is not conducive to animal welfare.
As there are alternatives to actual physical dissection in the classroom such as computer simulations and 3-D models, there is no justification in 21st-century to request young women and young men to dissect someone’s pet cat.
There was another high profile story similar to this one not so long ago. I wonder how prevalent this is across America.
Thank You for commenting. Your comment is interesting and you have a complete abhorrence, by the sound of it, of dissecting animals including cats in the classroom. And I tend to agree with you and think along the same lines as you. I remember when I was at school doing biology we did dissect a frog, I think it was. That was back in the 1960s. Even then we did not dissect cats. It seems to be very old-fashioned. It seems to be an old-fashioned concept and outdated. Schools have developed since then and become more aware. You would have thought they would have progressed a little more in respect of finding ways and means of educating children in the anatomy of animals.
Firstly, Dee, thank you for spotting this petition and telling me about it. Secondly, thank you for your interesting comment. There seems to be a lack of sensitivity in some schools and educational authorities towards the feelings of students. I’m sure some students don’t mind dissecting cats but there is almost bound to be at least one or two students (and I would say more) who will be upset by it and surely teachers should give these children the option to opt out or better still they should find alternatives in using modern technology.
It appears that there are no laws disallowing dissection in public schools. However, several states have adopted what is called The Student Choice Law that, presumably, gives any child K-12 the right to not participate without fear of reprisal (HA! HA!). I was further shocked to learn that even live animal experimentation is going on in classrooms for kids aged 5 to 18. In the Florida Statute, I found this sentence, ” The Legislature recognizes that the use of live animals in some kinds of experiments by students in grades K through 12 may be distasteful or traumatizing to immature students.” So, it’s saying that the child must be immature who doesn’t accept this insanity!
I’m disgusted by this and can hardly believe that this is still happening.
I really do not know what to put first.
It was proved by extensive studies that vivisection (usually done on frogs) contributes in no positive way to a child’s better understanding of anatomy. On the contrary, it alienates children from the medical vocation, not a surprise given any child’s inborn repulsion towards cruelty, let alone playing with animal entrails (the above does not apply for students of medical or veterinarian school, for reasons too trivial to enumerate; age in the first place).
Dissecting a dead cat is equally disturbing; allow me speculate that similar causes lead to similar effects; to expect the contrary is simply asinine.
I have the urge to call the school’s policy hitleresque, but I realize that Hitler himself imposed some laws in Nazi Germany against animal cruelty and sadistic school experiments, in particular.
The trauma suffered by many children as a result of such experiments is irreversible. The horrific images haunt them for the rest of their lives. Maybe children have a special sensitivity, but most probably it is we who have lost the normal sensitivity. Either way, subjecting children indiscriminately to such an ordeal is criminal.
Which brings up the question whether the school’s policy is legal in the US Commonwealth of Virginia.
I am lost.
Well done Irish. I think it is disgusting too. And well done to your youngest.
I’m signing and sharing the petition,this is vile and disgusting,my youngest was given an F for not dissecting a pig in her Jr year which was bullshit.