Every Fall at The University of Guelph, two hundred students conduct a "growth performance trial" on piglets, chicks and cows.  It’s the mandatory Lab for students of Introduction to Animal Nutrition [ANSC3120]

This one course draws dozens of animals into the world, separates them from their mothers, and subjects them to research whose answers are already known.

Students of ANSC3120 are assured that “The University of Guelph is committed to the humane treatment of animals”  [from the “Weaner Pig Trial” outline].  Yet the same document concedes: “The newly weaned piglet can undergo tremendous stress after separation from the sow.  The piglet’s world is drastically changed due to the new environment without the sow’s constant food supply, warmth, and protection."

ANSC3120 is a recommended course for students going into Veterinary Sciences.  But a course in Animal Nutrition should teach students to nurture and heal the animal; it should teach the animal’s benefit.  ANSC3120 currently teaches students to maximize animals for human use: to get them to “market weight” as quickly and cheaply as possible.

 

We ask for the University's full & consistent commitment to the humane treatment of animals. We ask The Department of Animal Bioscience to:

 

1. Save the current cohort of animals from slaughter.  They’re sent from campus back to U of G’s Arkell Swine Research Facility on Trial completion;  at what point, we ask, are they slaughtered?  Where, and  how?  Why not release all trial animals into the care of Ontario sanctuaries, where they’ll live full lives among those who love and value them?
2. Put the current cohort on a diet optimal for lifelong vitality, not for industry benefit; and use your expertise to heal any animals who’ve fallen ill.
3. Release data from past terms to current students of ANSC3120; and phase out animal trials in the Fall 2016 session.

 

 

U of G is an epicentre of the animal industry.  Its research facilitates it, its graduates oversee it. 

U of G is also a centre of animal healing: many of us have received excellent care for our animal friends from the Vet College and its graduates.​

This is an institutional contradiction that cannot hold, we submit.

 

To Professor Ira Mandell, to Department Chair James Squires; to the two T.A.s of ANSC3120 and to its lab coordinator:

These animals are in your care; please ensure their well-being.

Please teach your students true animal care, and make U of G a leader in animal welfare.  The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and The Oxford Centre Report both point to a future free of animal experimentation.  It's a better future for all, and U of G can help show the way.

 

Sincerely,

Toronto Pig Save & the Undersigned