Dog vivisection labs were once the norm in U.S. medical schools. SDCMS members will recall them with varying opinions about their value. As the years have passed, increasing expense of the labs and greater concern about animal usage in science have led faculty at most U.S. medical schools to drop vivisection labs. Today more than half of U.S. medical schools, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, no longer vivisect animals.

What is going on at UCSD? Each spring during the second semester of their freshman year, our medical students are instructed to vivisect two dogs. A total of 30 dogs are sacrificed in the physiology laboratory, and another 30 die in the pharmacology course.

In the physiology lab, students place an IV and an arterial line, float a Swan-Ganz and open the dog's chest. The students inject various drugs and trace pressure volume loops via thermodilution technique. At the close of the daylong session, the students ligate the dog's coronary arteries and inject sodium pentobarbital "in 1 0mg increments until contractions cease." The students wear gloves but do not keep a sterile field. No attempt is made to close the dog's chest. No trained surgeon is present.

These dogs are purpose-bred; i.e. commercially farmed at a factory that breeds these animals for sale to research facilities. Rumor has it that the standard Doberman costs about $450. The animals are NOT from the pound. While UCSD has had a contract with San Diego County's Department of Animal Control for several decades, the university apparently finds it more convenient to simply purchase purpose-bred dogs. The San Diego County Council's recent approval of a 5-year plan toward a "No-Kill" county seems to make pound seizure for medical school labs less likely than ever.

How does our curriculum compare to that of other schools? As already stated, most U.S. medical schools do not vivisect animals. This one-day lab within a semester long course is obviously not considered indispensable by most schools. Some forego the lab experience altogether, others show a videotape, and a few sacrifice just one animal for an entire class. other medical school faculties provide advanced computer simulators for their students, used either formally in prearranged sessions or independently at the students' convenience.

Student opposition to dog labs in San Diego has a history. One of the earliest opponents was a lone brave student who earned academic honors in physiology by scoring in the top 10% of his class. But because he refused to participate in the vivisection, his honors were revoked. This student has since gone on to an ENT residency and is performing well. Since then there has been a small but steady stream of conscientious objectors. Though "dog lab" is technically optional, a student must meet with the senior faculty in charge of the physiology or pharmacology course in order to opt out. Obviously this intimidating interview requires an extraordinary degree of conviction on the part of the student.

My personal involvement in this issue began last year when I volunteered to help several senior medical students with their organization of a noontime luncheon to discuss the labs with freshmen shortly before the deadline to opt out. In years past, the faculty has not openly discussed the controversial elements of this issue with the class and has not provided an alternative to the students who would not participate. Rather, the faculty insisted that material covered in the lab would be included on the exam, and non-participating students were left to their own devices. This past February of 1999, after much of the first year class learned what you've just been reading nearly a third opted out of dog vivisection. The resulting commotion was unfortunately and unnecessarily fractious.

Motivated by their dramatic response to this minor effort, I set about to demonstrate that many other San Diego physicians consider dog labs unnecessary. The petition has been signed by over 100 area physicians, including 24 faculty from UCSD, among whom are three former medical school department chairs. The signatures represent 28 specialties from 9 area hospitals. Signatures have been garnered with ease, as fewer than one in ten doctors tell me he/she thought dog lab was a highly valuable learning experience worth the cost of a dog's life. The majority of the signatories do not oppose animal use in legitimate research.