PETA plans to protest use of live cats in Texas Tech medical training exercise

Karmadillo

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Wed Jun-03-09 09:50 PM
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PETA plans to protest use of live cats in Texas Tech medical training exercise

http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=13109

Lubbock, Texas -- Holding signs that read, "Texas Tech: Stop Killing Cats" and "Teach Without Torture," PETA members will converge on the Texas Tech campus on Thursday to protest the school's use of cats in painful and deadly infant life-support training exercises. The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center has been using cats obtained from Odessa Animal Control for infant intubation and needle aspiration training exercises even though the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Association--which sponsor the most widely taught pediatric life-support courses in the country--exclusively endorse the use of manikins, not live animals, for this kind of training.

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In the intubation training exercise, hard plastic tubes are repeatedly forced down the cats' windpipes. This can result in collapsed lungs, bleeding, and even death. In the needle aspiration procedure, air is forced into cats' chest cavities, and course participants repeatedly practice inserting a needle into the animals to remove the excess air. At the end of the training sessions, the cats are killed. PETA has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct an investigation to determine if Texas Tech is in violation of the Animal Welfare Act.

"Texas Tech has chosen to ignore the medical experts and kill cats instead," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "Students are being forced to hurt animals when they should be furnished with the most modern and effective teaching tools available."

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http://media.www.dailytoreador.com/media/storage/paper870/news/2009/05/27/News/Peta-Plans.To.Protest.Use.Of.Live.Cats.In.Texas.Tech.Medical.Training.Exercise-3744115.shtml

Although it did not directly involve the university, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, is somewhat familiar with Texas Tech, having protested the treatment of elephants during The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the City Bank Coliseum on April 21.

Now the animal rights group is back.

PETA has scheduled a protest Thursday from noon to 1 p.m. at the corner of University Avenue and Broadway, where it hopes to shed light on the Health Sciences Center's use of live cats in a medical training exercise similar to Pediatric Advanced Life Support, or PALS.

"Students at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center are ramming tubes down the throats of cats and stabbing needles into their chests in the course of cruel and outdated training exercises," said Ian Smith, a research associate for PETA. "These are exercises that the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Association both endorse the use of simulators for and not animals."

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