Noah Cyrus Encourages Students to Say No to Animal Dissection

Noah Cyrus lies on a cold stainless-steel table. Her heart is no longer beating—she has been cut open for a classroom lesson in dissection.

Obviously, Noah Cyrus is still alive and kicking. But what if your cat were on the dissection table instead? A classroom lesson is no reason to take someone’s life. No matter what your teacher may tell you, most animals used for dissection are killed for it—they didn’t die naturally.

The dissection industry kills more than 10 million animals every year. They’re bred in warehouses, abducted from their homes in nature, or cut from their mother’s wombs in slaughterhouses. Workers pump them full of chemicals to preserve their bodies. That’s no way to learn about life. You can learn about biology and anatomy—and see what animals’ insides look like—without hurting anyone. Not a single medical school program in the U.S. uses animals to teach future doctors.

There are tons of modern, humane ways to learn about dissection. Animal-free lessons are just as effective, if not more so. Computer programs can be used over and over again, so students can go back and repeat the lesson until they understand. Studies have shown that students interested in science sometimes lose that curiosity after being forced to go through the traumatic experience of dissecting animals.

And it’s a no-brainer for schools, too. What’s more affordable: buying dead animals for students year after year or buying a single computer program that can be used forever? Keeping animals out of the classroom is the clear superior option in terms of ethics and cost.