New Billboard Calls for an End to Summer Dissection Course
Featuring the image of a piglet next to a dissection tray, a new PCRM billboard going up on Fort Hill Road in Lynchburg, Va., this week lets passersby know that teenagers and gruesome animal dissection don’t mix—or make for a good education. The billboard calls on local residents to help stop the “Blood and Guts” high school dissection course, which was recently renamed “Body Quest,” held annually at Lynchburg College. The billboard also promotes www.NoBloodAndGuts.org, PCRM’s new Web site offering information about the course and humane alternatives.
The “Body Quest” course, which involves the dissection of many different animal species, including fetal pigs, sharks, snakes, turtles, frogs, minks, and pigeons, takes place each summer at Lynchburg College as part of the Virginia Governor’s School for Mathematics, Science, and Technology for gifted students. In a recent follow-up letter to Dr. James Kroger, director of the program, PCRM offered to assist with an educational grant of up to $2,500 toward the purchase of a suitable library of computer-based learning alternatives to replace animal dissections. Two local veterinarians have also committed to offering veterinary mentorships to the high school students in lieu of the animal dissections.
 Pictures from last year’s course, which showed shocking images of students engaging in disturbingly inappropriate behavior toward the animals they were dissecting, prompted PCRM to immediately contact the school and ask administrators to implement humane dissection alternatives.
The Governor’s School has not yet accepted PCRM’s repeated offers to help with humane dissection alternatives, which are more cost-efficient than traditional dissection and provide a superior learning experience—without sacrificing compassion for animals.
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