A recent PETA investigation prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cite laboratories at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) for violations of federal animal welfare laws. The investigation also revealed that MUSC continues to cut holes into the throats and chests of live pigs in a cruel and deadly trauma training exercise, even though the university uses state-of-the-art simulators to teach the very same skills in its other courses.
Comparative studies by leading trauma surgeons have repeatedly found that the use of simulators, such as TraumaMan (which is approved by the American College of Surgeons) is superior to the use of animal labs for preparing trainees to treat injuries in human patients—in addition to saving animals' lives. Please send an e-mail to Raymond Greenberg, president of MUSC, and politely ask him to immediately replace the use of pigs for these cruel training exercises with modern human-patient simulators that are already in use at MUSC. Also, make sure that your voice is heard by calling Raymond Greenberg's office at 843-792-2211.Sample e-mail text is provided below to help you draft your message.Subject:Please End Cruel Pig Labs at the Medical University of South CarolinaBody:I was dismayed to learn that the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) still uses live pigs to train its medical residents in trauma procedures, even though the same procedures are already taught in another course at MUSC using a modern, educationally superior human-patient simulator. To continue harming animals for this training when MUSC itself has already deemed simulation to be a superior teaching method is unjustifiable.I urge you to please act swiftly to end these cruel pig labs.