Dissection Kit Found in Accused School Stabber’s Home Prompts peta2 Action

Group Rushes Materials on Link Between Animal Abuse and Violence Against Humans to Houston-Area Schools

For Immediate Release:
April 18, 2013

Contact:
Shakira Croce 202-483-7382

Houston — Following the reported discovery of an animal-dissection kit in the home of 20-year-old Dylan Quick—the man accused of the April 9 stabbings of 14 people at Lone Star College in the Houston suburb of Cyprus—peta2, PETA’s youth division, is calling on local schools to replace animal dissection with humane, superior alternatives and to educate students about the link between cruelty to animals and violence directed against humans. peta2 has sent schools in Houston, Baytown, and Sugar Land educational material on both issues. In its materials, peta2 urges educators to impress upon students the urgency of always reporting animal abuse the moment that they witness it.

“When students dissect animals, they become desensitized to the suffering that those animals experienced at the hands of biological supply companies,” says peta2 Director Marta Holmberg. “The best way to ensure that those same students don’t also become desensitized to human suffering is to cut out dissection and rely on the many superior teaching methods already in use.”

Each year in the U.S., an estimated 10 million animals are killed for dissection. Many come from biological supply houses, which breed some animals or are obtained from animal shelters or the wild. Studies show that exposing young people to animal dissection can cause lifelong psychological distress and foster callousness toward animals since using animals as disposable classroom tools sends a dangerous message that it’s acceptable to hurt, use, and discard animals as if they were inanimate objects. Non-animal methods, such as interactive computer programs, teach students that violence against any living being is unacceptable, and they have been shown to teach biology as well as—and in many cases better than—dissection. The National Science Teachers Association endorses the use of modern non-animal methods as replacements for dissection.

For more information, please visit peta2.com.