AR-News: Launch of www.LearningWithoutKilling.info

[Andrew Knight]

Media Release: Launch of  <http://www.learningwithoutkilling.info/>
www.LearningWithoutKilling.info

Contact: Dr. Andrew Knight,  <mailto:info at learningwithoutkilling.info>
info at learningwithoutkilling.info

(will be away at Animal Rights 2004 shortly for 1 week)

Please send me a copy of anything published - thank you!

 

Please distribute the downloadable www.LearningWithoutKilling.info
<http://www.learningwithoutkilling.info/>  flyer on campuses that use
animals in teaching!

 

Hundreds of thousands of animals are needlessly experimented on, killed and
dissected each year in schools and universities worldwide. However,
increasing numbers of students and teachers are no longer willing to harm or
kill animals. Ethical, compassionate and courageous students have been the
most powerful advocates of humane alternatives, and, despite frequent
faculty opposition, their recent campaigns on several campuses around the
world have resulted in the elimination of many labs in which animals were
harmed or killed, saving hundreds of dogs, frogs, pigs, sheep, guinea pigs,
mice and rats annually. 

 

Unlike academic staff, students campaigning for humane alternatives cannot
be fired, and students with a committed and professional approach and access
to the resources they need have proven enormously powerful advocates of
humane education in schools and universities around the world. 

 

Created by veterinarian Dr. Andrew Knight, who won several major battles not
to kill animals in veterinary school, www.LearningWithoutKilling.info has
just been launched to provide students with easy access to the resources
they need to win their campaigns. It includes books on humane alternatives
to harmful animal use in education, conscientious objection student guides,
lists of educational studies proving that alternative students perform at
least as well as those trained via harming animals, alternatives submissions
(that have already been successful in ending hundreds of animal experiments
at several major universities worldwide), and the world's largest photo
gallery on the subject, including 125 high-quality photos of animal
dissection, experimentation, surgical training, computer simulations,
mannequins and models, preserved tissues, and humane surgical training
alternatives. A memorial page contains stories from students about animals
they've seen harmed or killed.

 

Said veterinarian Dr. Knight, "As a student I refused to participate in the
mass killings of healthy animals that commonly occur during surgical and
other veterinary training. I was penalized and threatened with failure. But
I persisted, and discovered that students with a committed and professional
approach can take on their universities and win! Since then colleagues have
done the same at several other major universities around the world, ending
many labs and saving hundreds of animal lives. I created
www.LearningWithoutKilling.info to give students around the world access to
the resources they need to win these campaigns in the face of faculty
opposition. It is my hope that new people will join the growing
international community of ethical and compassionate students unwilling to
harm animals during their education."

 

Background: Life and health sciences education has traditionally involved
the harmful use of animals, and countless animals have lost their lives in
attempts to teach practical skills and demonstrate scientific principles
which have, in most cases, been established for decades. However, at the
start of the 21st century, many thousands of humane educational alternatives
exist. These include computer simulations, videos, plasticised specimens,
ethically-sourced cadavers (obtained from animals that have died naturally,
in accidents, or been euthanased for medical reasons), models, diagrams,
self-experimentation, and supervised clinical experiences. At least 28
educational studies covering all educational levels and disciplines have
proven that students learning via humane methods are at least as competent
as those trained via harmful animal use; indeed, 50% actually showed that
humane methods produced superior learning outcomes. Despite the overwhelming
scientific evidence, humane teaching methods are resisted in many schools
and universities around the world, resulting in fierce struggles with
students unwilling to harm animals during their education.

 

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