Oakton Community College Drops Cruel Rat and Salamander Lab

October 2009

PETA’s Laboratory Investigations Department (LID) learned about an Oakton Community College anatomy and physiology course in which dozens of rats and salamanders were dissected alive so that students could observe their working organs before the animals were killed. LID immediately contacted the school to urge its administrators to end the cruel procedures. We sent information about modern, humane, and educationally superior simulators and rallied our members and supporters to urge the school to drop the cruel laboratories. In response, the school evaluated the information we provided and announced that the use of live animals in all classroom experiments has been replaced with sophisticated computer simulations and other learning methods that do not involve animals.