XPost: can.general, soc.culture.canada 
 From: abc@123.cl 
  
 U.S. doctors protest Canadian medical schools killing live pigs 
  
  
 By Tiffany Crawford August 27, 2009 
  
  
 The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine plans to file a 
 complaint early next week with the Canadian Council on Animal Care 
 against the University of Saskatchewan for using and killing live pigs 
 in the course of teaching doctors how to treat medical trauma cases. 
 Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., also uses live pigs in its trauma 
 training. 
  
 The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine plans to file a 
 complaint early next week with the Canadian Council on Animal Care 
 against the University of Saskatchewan for using and killing live pigs 
 in the course of teaching doctors how to treat medical trauma cases. 
 Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., also uses live pigs in its trauma 
 training. 
 Photograph by: Tim Sloan, AFP/Getty Images 
  
 OTTAWA € Two Canadian medical schools are under fire from a Washington 
 -based physicians' group for using and killing live pigs in the course 
 of teaching doctors how to treat medical trauma cases. 
  
 The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine plans to file a 
 complaint early next week with the Canadian Council on Animal Care 
 against the University of Saskatchewan. The letter, to be sent Sept. 2, 
 urges officials to end the use of pigs in upcoming trauma training 
 courses, scheduled for Sept. 3 through 5. 
  
 A University of Saskatchewan spokeswoman said late Thursday, that the 
 program intends to abandon the use of live animals in favour of 
 simulators. 
  
 "It's my understanding that the director of the program Dr. Paul Hayes 
 has purchased a (simulator) and plans to use it to teach classes," said 
 Kathryn Warden, director of research communications. 
  
 Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., also uses live pigs in its trauma 
 training. A spokesman for the physicians committee, Dr. John Pippin, 
 said they're waiting to hear back from Queen's. Several letters to the 
 University of Saskatchewan from the committee went unanswered, 
 prompting the complaint, said Pippin. 
  
 He said 95 per cent of Canadian and U.S. facilities providing Advanced 
 Trauma Life Support training use cadavers or lifelike human patient 
 models instead of animals. The course trains medical students how to 
 respond to patients suffering from acute trauma. 
  
 Out of 191 medical schools and hospitals across North America surveyed 
 by the committee, only the two Canadian institutions and eight American 
 medical schools reported no immediate plans to abandon the use of live 
 animals, said Pippin. 
  
 The trauma training at the two universities involves repeatedly 
 inserting tubes and needles into the abdomens and chest cavities of 
 pigs, said Pippin. 
  
 He said the animals' throats are cut open multiple times per session. 
  
 "They are transported and kept confined and manipulated before, which 
 is very fearful for them," he said. "They can also receive pain and 
 suffering during the procedure." 
  
 Although the animals are anesthetized during the procedures, he said 
 they are subjected to the trauma of confinement and manipulation before 
 being killed when the training session ends. 
  
 It's also a human safety issue € human simulators provide students with 
 a more accurate representation of human anatomy, said Pippin. 
  
 "Regardless of where people stand on the issue of ethical treatment to 
 animals, the accumulated evidence is so overwhelming and favours the 
 use of simulators that mimic human anatomy," he said. 
  
 "When you learn on animals, you make mistakes on people. Really, the 
 university doesn't have a leg to stand on to continue to use pigs when 
 nearly everyone else has simulators." 
  
 Sunnybrook Health Centre in Toronto was on the list of institutions 
 that used animals but this year switched to human simulators. Also, the 
 University of Ottawa has written a letter to the committee promising to 
 switch by next year. 
  
 Pippin said the group sent three letters to Dr. Paul Hayes, the head of 
 the trauma training program at University of Saskatchewan, but has 
 received no response. 
  
 University of Saskatchewan Dean of Medicine Dr. William Albritton said 
 the ATLS program is run by Hayes, who is an independent physician and 
 not a university employee. However, the courses are conducted using 
 facilities at the school. 
  
 Pippin would not speculate on the reasons why the two universities have 
 not switched, but said often, some schools won't switch because the 
 instructor is only trained to use the live animals. 
  
 The American College of Surgeons, which determines standards for the 
 trauma courses, has endorsed the human simulators since 2001. 
  
 The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a non-profit 
 health organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts 
 clinical research and encourages higher standards for ethics and 
 effectiveness in research and education. 
  
 The Canadian Council on Animal Care guidelines state: "painful 
 experiments or multiple invasive procedures on an individual animal, 
 conducted solely for the instruction of students in the classroom, or 
 for the demonstration of established scientific knowledge, cannot be 
 justified." 
  
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