After finding itself in the glare of the national media
spotlight, the Gunnison Valley High School has apologized for using a
homeless dog in a school biology experiment.
The dog, who’d been abandoned and was unclaimed after two weeks, was
going to be put down. So their biology teacher organized a class in which
the dog was cut open in front of the 16- and 17-year-old girls so they
could see the digestive system at work. After the surgery, the dog was
destroyed.
The story was broadcast on KTVX news, and then made its way into the
national media, whereupon the school was surprised to find itself facing
some very unwelcome publicity and protests from around the country.
“We don’t condone this,” said South Sanpete School District assistant
superintendent Donald Hill. “Our schools will not participate in this
again.”
But the teacher stood by what he’d done, and even the assistant
principal’s apology was somewhat half-hearted. “They did not remove or
dissect any parts. It was not barbaric, [but] we will have to find a
better way next time.”
A “better way” to accomplish what exactly? Any other lessons we teach
them in school or church about the sanctity of life and family values are
instantly undermined in a class like this, when we treat living creatures
as no more than objects to be sliced open, inspected, and then killed.
Vivisection (cutting up live animals for experiments) has long been
abandoned by schools in the mainstream of education. Teachers know that
it’s the thin end of a very dangerous wedge. Once life – any life – is
viewed with such disrespect, the door is open to all life being treated
similarly.
“It just makes me sick,” said student Sierra Williams to KTVX news.
Other students told their parents that their teacher was less than
sympathetic to their distress, telling them they simply needed to be able
to “handle” it. But what the students couldn’t handle was not the sight of
blood or body parts. Had they been witnessing a heroic effort to save a
life, they would have reacted quite differently. Sure, many of us are
squeamish about watching surgery, but that’s very different from the
horror and distress of these girls.
Young people learn some of their most important life lessons from the
way their parents and teachers treat animals. Even seeing a family pet
dropped off at the local shelter can be traumatic. When the family runs
into financial problems, and Mom and Dad decide they can no longer keep
Fido or Fluffy, it sends a very clear message to the youngest child, who
now finds himself at the bottom of the family hierarchy: “I may be next.”
Cruelty and disrespect to animals breed the same attitude toward
humans. In homes where animals are being abused, spouses and children are
almost always being abused, too. It’s a well-known fact that every serial
killer ever captured has admitted to having started on animals before
graduating to people. And according to the pastor of the high-school boys
who carried out the infamous massacre at the Columbine High School a few
years ago, the two boys were known to have practiced first on birds.
Respect for life is fundamental to any civilized society. It’s why we
even surround the execution of even a condemned criminal with certain
rituals – the last meal, the visit from the chaplain. And it’s why, when a
lost, lonely, helpless dog is going to be killed, shelter workers do their
best to offer him or her a caring and dignified end.
We should be proud that the girls at Gunnison Valley were horrified and
upset at the school experiment they witnessed. They don’t need to learn to
“handle” their reaction. They need to be guided by it. In a world where
the daily news is full of routine killing and cruelty, we need to teach
our children that kindness to animals builds respect for all living
creatures, and that this is the foundation of a better world for all of
us.
By Michael Mountain
Best Friends Animal Society
