PCRM’s work to eliminate animal use in medical schools in Eastern Europe culminated this fall in an international conference in Poznan, Poland, attended by physicians from the U.S., Poland, Russia, and the Ukraine.

Professors Andrzej Trzebski and Kazimierz Ziemnicki of the Medical Academy of Warsaw and the University of Poznan, respectively, had eliminated animal use at their schools, with help and encouragement from PCRM and Fundacja Animals. Realizing enormous education and financial benefits, they aim to see their new nonanimal teaching methods to become routine elsewhere.

PCRM member physician Rich McLellan, M.D., also spoke on the advantages of humane educational methods.

Nedim Buyukmihci, V.M.D., professor of veterinary medicine at the University of California, Davis, and president of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, addressed humane approaches to veterinary education.

Following their presentation, Dr. McLellan met with officials of medical institutes in the Ukraine, all of whom were initially skeptical about the feasibility of nonanimal methods. By the end of the conference, however, they were so interested in eliminating animal use at their institute that they invited a PCRM physician to the Ukraine to aid the process. One obstacle faced by the Ukranian educators is the lack of computer hardware to run the physiology and pharmacology computer programs now used in Poland.

PCRM is working to help provide the needed resources, and will build upon this progress in Eastern European medical education to encourage further elimination of animal use.

PCRM salutes Drs. McLellan and Buyukmihci for their excellent work in alternatives to animal use, and Drs. Trzebski and Ziemnicki, and Wanda Blake of Fundaija Animal of Poland, for their continuing efforts to make medical and veterinary education more ethical and more effective.