Dear PCRM supporter,

We need your voice on an urgent matter. Tomorrow, the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) School of Medicine will begin killing pigs in its physiology lab. School administrators need to hear from you that this outdated practice must stop. Please help by politely asking UMMC to end this animal use today.

In these laboratory sessions, medical students will place catheters in the arteries and veins of pigs, block the animals' arteries, and inject them with drugs. Students will then open the pigs' chest cavities and massage the hearts. Afterward, the animals will be killed.

So far, the responsible UMMC faculty and administrators have ignored pleas to change this method. Please help us by e-mailing UMMC School of Medicine dean James Keeton, M.D., today and urging him to end this cruel and unnecessary practice. Send an automatic e-mail.

It is time for UMMC to make the change. UMMC is one of only seven medical schools in the United States and Canada still using live animals for training. Furthermore, UMMC already has a state-of-the-art simulation center that could easily provide nonanimal training methods to medical students.

Please e-mail Dr. Keeton today and politely ask him to join the 95 percent of medical schools that use human-based training methods.

Thank you for all of your help.

Sincerely,

John J. Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C.
Director of Academic Affairs

P.S. Please forward this alert to your family and friends and ask them to take action!