Sponsored by: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is planning to use LIVE pigs for a trauma training course starting on October 14th
The use of live animals to train physicians in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) courses is cruel and totally unnecessary. Animals experience trauma when confined and shipped, and like us, they feel pain. While 95 percent of the U.S. institutions that offer ATLS courses have switched to more effective human-based simulators, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) seems to have little regard for the lives of animals, using and ultimately killing pigs to train doctors despite the existence of alternatives.
UPMC conducts the only ATLS program in Pennsylvania that continues to use animals.
Hurry -- the pigs will face the operating table on October 14th!
Tell the UPMC's executive vice president and chief medical officer that it's unacceptable to use live animals for the institution's trauma training course.
Dear Dr. Webster,
I am writing to ask that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center immediately end the cruel and unnecessary use of live animals in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) courses. UPMC is among only 5 percent of U.S. institutions that continues to use animals for these courses -- and the only on in Pennsylvania. The American College of Surgeons has approved the use of medical simulators for these courses and I urge you to replace animals with these superior human-based training tools.
[Your personal comments will be added here.]
Please make this change before UPMC's next ATLS course on October 14 and 15. Give the availability of alternative and your institution's previous commitment to medical simulation, there is no justification for the continued use of live animals.
Please end this cruel and unnecessary practice immediately.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
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