PETA Donates IPads, Software to Help Miami-Area School Cut Out Dissection

Academy of Arts & Minds Charter High School Welcomes Modern Teaching Tools That Make Compassion a Part of Science Classes

For Immediate Release:
February 13, 2013

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 770-518-1675; TasgolaB@peta.org

Coconut Grove, Fla. — When students at the Academy of Arts & Minds Charter High School start learning about anatomy, none of them will cut into a frog, thanks to a donation from PETA that will replace all frog dissection laboratories at the school.

The animal rights group—through its national educational grants program—has given the school 10 iPads with preloaded copies of Punflay's Virtual Frog Dissection Educational App software, which features 3-dimensional organ views, anatomical comparisons of human and frog organs, and dissection tools. Interactive software such as Virtual Frog has been shown to teach anatomy better than animal dissection.

"PETA's donation will help the Academy of Arts & Minds take the lead in teaching biology with humane, modern methods," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "Countless frogs, pigs, cats, and other animals are still killed for dissection at less progressive schools, even though non-animal methods for teaching biology are far superior."

The millions of animals who are used in school dissections come from biological supply houses, which breed some animals and obtain others from animal shelters or the wild. Comparative studies have repeatedly shown that non-animal teaching methods, such as interactive computer programs, are more effective at teaching biology than crude dissections. These programs also save time and money and increase student confidence and satisfaction. The National Science Teachers Association and the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society endorse the use of modern non-animal methods as replacements for animal dissection.

For more information, please visit PETA.org/Dissection.