April 2011
After learning from PETA about the many benefits of using humanlike simulators instead of animals for teaching emergency medical skills, the Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) has confirmed that it has ended the use of cats for intubation training in its Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) course. In the course, cats had plastic tubes repeatedly thrust down their delicate throats as many as 10 times per training session—or nearly 50 times per year. Repeated intubation in cats can cause bleeding, swelling, pain, scarring, collapsed lungs, and even death. But from now on, NMCSD will only use sophisticated non-animal simulators that replicate human anatomy and physiology for the PALS course. NMCSD has also confirmed that it has started the adoption process for the cats who were previously used in the facility’s PALS course.
