There are several steps that you can take to help you determine the extent of animal use, both in teaching and in laboratory experimentation, at a college or a university: 1. Institutions that experiment on animals other than mice, rats, birds, and cold-blooded animals (these animals are specifically excluded from coverage under the Animal Welfare Act) must be licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). You can use the USDA website to find out if your school is registered to experiment on animals, how many animals (excluding mice, rats, birds, and cold-blooded animals) the school confines in its laboratories, and if it has been cited for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act. 2. All institutions that receive federal grants for animal experiments must be registered with the National Institutes of Health. A list of all the universities and companies that receive taxpayer money for animal experiments can be found here (click on the state that you want at the top). This list includes facilities experimenting on mice, rats, birds, and cold-blooded animals as well as those using species regulated by the USDA. Keep in mind that only schools receiving federal funds for animal experiments will be on this list. Schools may still be experimenting on mice, rats, birds, and cold-blooded animals without being on this list or the one above if the studies are funded by grants from private sources or if the animals are being used in teaching exercises. 3. For schools that are not on either list, you should check the schools' websites (or Google them if the sites do not have a search feature) to look for evidence of animal experimentation and animal use in teaching (i.e., dissection and classroom physiology experiments on live animals). You might have to do some searching, but in most cases any college that has a biology department and/or a psychology department will use animals in some way. One clue to animal use is the existence of an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), sometimes called by other names, which oversees the use of animals at some facilities.
4. Many schools still use animal dissection in biology, anatomy, and other science courses. Physiology classes often involve live-animal exercises with turtles, frogs, rabbits, and rats. Find the course catalog on the school's website and look for biology classes, then read each course description or syllabus to check for dissection or live-animal laboratories. When in doubt, call or e-mail the university department directly and ask what kinds of live and dead animals it uses. If animal use is part of a course that you are interested in enrolling in, don't immediately discount it. Contact the professor and ask if you can use humane alternatives.