Victory! Animals Spared Dissection in D.C.

Published by Michelle Kretzer.

Students attending District of Columbia Public Schools no longer have to choose between their grades and their morals. On PETA’s recommendation, the school district has adopted a dissection-choice policy, giving students the option to use advanced software and other humane methods of studying anatomy.


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To help district teachers implement the new policy, PETA is offering to donate computers and software through our national educational grants program so that D.C. students have access to state-of-the-art virtual-dissection equipment. Teachers are already taking us up on the offer! Advanced computer models have proved to be more effective teaching tools than cutting up animals, and they allow students to learn compassion while learning about anatomy.

Animals used in dissection could be lost or abandoned companion animals or could be bred in squalid mass-breeding facilities and then killed. Frogs, the most commonly dissected animal, are often ripped out of their natural environments, stuffed into bags without food or water, and shipped across long distances, and many of them sustain injuries or die during transport. But states and school districts across the country are honoring students’ right not to contribute to this cruelty by implementing dissection-choice policies.  

To learn how to cut out dissection at a school near you, contact us to request a free “Cut Out Dissection” pack

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 Ingrid E. Newkirk

“Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights?” READ MORE

— Ingrid E. Newkirk, PETA President and co-author of Animalkind