WHAT'S NEXT

Tell Massachusetts General to Stop Using Sheep for Medical Training
  1. Signatures
    796 out of 1,000
    Petitioning
    1. President (Peter Slavin, M.D.)
  2. Created By
    Brandon Bosworth
    Honolulu, HI
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates
How We Won

May 07, 2011

Thanks to pressure from activists and the public, Massachusetts General Hospital has agreed to stop using live sheep in its Advanced Trauma Life Support courses. Like the majority of ATLS courses across the country, Mass General will now use simulators in its trauma training. With this compassionate choice, there is now only one ATLS course in Massachusetts that still uses live animals: Baystate Medical Center.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, the group leading the charge on the switch from live animals to simulators at medical centers, writes this about the victory: "Given the status and reputation of Mass General in the medical community this is a monumental achievement ... This decision by one of the world's most prominent hospitals supports the superiority of medical simulation—rather than live animals—for trauma training."

After being contacted by more than 10,000 animal lovers, the University of Massachusetts Medical School has committed to permanently ending the use of pigs in its Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) program. They are now part of the vast majority of institutions that use only non-animal methods for ATLS courses. Only 10 out of the 227 surveyed ATLS courses in the United States continue to use animals. Most facilities rely on alternate training methods, including using high-tech mannequins such as Synman and TraumaMan. Both have been recommended by the American College of Surgeons.

One facility that still uses live animals in ATLS training is Massachusetts General Hospital, specifically sheep. As the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine makes clear, it's a gruesome, deadly experience for the sheep: "Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) training at MGH involves cutting into live, anesthetized sheep and practicing procedures such as inserting a tube and needle into the animals’ chest cavities and cutting into their throats. After the training session, the animals are killed. The animals are also subjected to the trauma of confinement, shipping, and preparation for surgery."

Tell Massachusetts General Hospital to end this cruel, unnecessary practice.

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Stop Using Sheep for ATLS Training

Greetings,

I read on Change.org that the University of Massachusetts Medical School has committed to permanently ending the use of pigs in its Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) program. They are now part of the vast majority of institutions that use only non-animal methods for ATLS courses. Only 10 out of the 227 surveyed ATLS courses in the United States continue to use animals. Most facilities rely on alternate training methods, including using high-tech mannequins such as Synman and TraumaMan. Both have been recommended by the American College of Surgeons.

I am disturbed to learn that Massachusetts General Hospital continues to use live sheep in its ATLS training courses. I agree with cardiologist John J. Pippin, M.D., who says, “Cutting into living animals is a substandard way to teach emergency procedures that will be used on humans. The course instructor already uses simulators to teach the same procedures also taught with live sheep. MGH should use state-of-the-art, nonanimal teaching methods, including human patient simulators, for all such trauma courses.”

Please join the majority of U.S. facilities that rely on alternate training methods, and end the cruel, unnecessary use of sheep in ATLS training at Massachusetts General Hospital.

[Your name]

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