John Pippin, Director of Academic Affairs at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), notified supporters via email that Morristown Medical Center (MMC) in New Jersey, has committed to stop using live dogs in their emergency medicine residency program.
The center is said to have been using live dogs in their teaching program as demonstrating to residents involving brutal procedures like cutting open and drilling into dogs’ bodies. PCRM campaigned to convince MMC on using nonanimal training methods in their residency program but it didn’t prove fruitful until the committee turned to advertisements.
“We put up a billboard and train station ads that called out the medical center. Less than 48 hours after the ads went up, MMC contacted us and told us they would stop using animals,” wrote Pippin to supporters in his email.
It will of course need to be verified from the said institute on how strictly they are committing to this change of policy on dog use and whether we will have somebody to watch that they refrain from animal cruelty in future.
Meanwhile, the committee is asking University of Washington to stop using live animals for paramedic training. Its petition page points to the horrors of using live pigs in training flight nurses.
Hopefully, under public pressure this campaign will also be successful and put an end to the suffering of voiceless animals in name of science and education.