Animal Welfare Information Center Bulletin, Summer 2000, Vol. 11 No. 1-2

The HSUS Humane Education Loan Program

Introduction
History of HELP
Progress Report
Other Activities
Further Information

Whatever one’s personal view of the commonplace biology classroom exercise of dissecting animals, we must acknowledge that it is a practice to which increasing numbers of students are objecting. The basis of complaint may be an moral one relating to the animal’s untimely death, or an environmental one based on a concern that a frog, for example, was removed from its natural habitat to be dissected. Or it could simply be that the student is not comfortable with the prospect of cutting into the skin of a once-living creature. Whatever the reason, the Humane Society of the United States believes that biology education will benefit when alternatives are available to accommodate students with any or all of these reasons.

It is this belief that impelled the organization to launch, in 1995, a program called the Humane Education Loan Program (HELP) (previously called the Alternatives Loan Program). Realizing that availability of alternatives is often the greatest stumbling block for students who object to dissection and for teachers wanting to accommodate them, our aim for HELP was to loan, free of charge, dissection alternatives to students or teachers who request them. By doing this, we could benefit both students and teachers, foster development and refinement of alternatives by gaining increased exposure and evaluation of these materials in the classroom, and, because HSUS is an animal protection organization, hopefully bring some benefit to animals as well.

History of HELP

Prior to 1995, HSUS had accumulated a handful of dissection alternatives sent from manufacturers eager for us to be aware of their new products. To operate an effective loan program, however, we needed a broader array of materials in our inventory, so we set about contacting companies and asking for donations of their materials and permission to lend them. Industry response was positive. To date, companies have donated 45 items, with a retail value exceeding $7,000. An industry grant of another $5,000 has allowed us to substantially increase our inventory with additional purchases. Currently, our inventory totals 284 items representing 17 animal species and several learning disciplines within the biology sphere (Table 1).

Progress Report

Since its 1995 launch, participation in HELP has undergone steady growth. To date, we have loaned over 600 items to more than 220 individuals, including students, teachers, and parents in 31 states and 5 countries.

As new alternatives have entered the marketplace, our inventory has grown and diversified. Available materials include CD-ROMs with titles such as The Digital Frog 2, Dissection Works, and The Ultimate Human Body; videos like the Cat Anatomy Instructional Videotape Series, which provides an exhaustive review of the anatomy of the domestic cat; three-dimensional models, such as The Great American Bullfrog, and the PVC Rat, a sophisticated replica with finely molded replaceable soft plastic organs and vessels designed for practicing microsurgery technique. In all, our alternatives represent 14 species: cat, clam, crayfish, earthworm, fetal pig, frog, grasshopper, human, perch, pigeon, rat, shark, sheep, and sea star.

Other Activities

HSUS continues to work with over a thousand students and teachers yearly. Our teacher- directed activities include attendance at conventions of the National Association of Biology Teachers, and the National Science Teachers Association, where we give workshops and interact with hundreds of teachers who visit our exhibit booth. We also produce an annotated list of humane science fair project topics, and a list of States where dissection laws and policies are in place, and we offer a 6-minute videotape on the dissection issue (220 science teachers requested this video in 1999).

For students, we offer many resources in addition to the HELP. These include: suggestions on how to write letters to the editor and how to approach and negotiate with their teachers, a list of State student choice in dissection laws, a list of published studies that compare animal-use methods with alternative methods, a list of published studies of student attitudes to dissection, a cost comparison of alternatives versus dissection, and an article we published in The American Biology Teacher titled “Student/Teacher Conflict Regarding Animal Dissection” and other materials. Many of these materials are of interest to teachers as well. An e-mail discussion group (the Inter-Campus Animal Advocacy Network (I-CAAN)) provides a forum for students to discuss animal issues and share ideas on how best to resolve problems.

Many students carry their personal campaigns a step further by helping to draft dissection choice policies for their schools and universities so that future students can have humane options. These efforts further HSUS’s goal of improving life science education for students, teachers, and animals.

Further Information

The HELP program is operated by the Animal Research Issues Section of HSUS. We accept loan requests by phone, letter, or e-mail. To learn more about or borrow items from the Humane Education Loan Program, please contact: Daniel Kossow, Research Assistant, The Humane Society of the United States, 2100 L Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037, phone: 301-258-3042, fax: 301-258-7760, or e-mail: dkossow@hsus.org. A list of currently available materials is available on our web site at http://www.hsus.org/programs/research/animals_education.html.

Table 1. List of currently available items in HELP. Items are suitable for middle (M) or high (H) school, or college (C). Updates can be found at http://www.hsus.org/programs/research/alt_dissection.html.

BRAIN

Videos:
Anatomy of Brain (H C)

CAT

CD-ROMs:
  Neotek CatLab (Windows) (H C)
  CatWorks
  Virtual Reality Cat

Videos:
Cat Anatomy Instructional Video Series (C)
Boreal Cat Dissection (M H)

Charts:
Boreal Cat Dissection Charts (H C)
Turtox Key Card for Cat Dissection

Slides:
Cat anatomy slides

CLAM

Videos:
Dissection & Anatomy (M H C)

Charts:
BioCam Dissection Chart (H C)

CRAYFISH

CD-ROMs:
BioLab Invertebrate (includes crayfish) (M H)

Videos:
Boreal Crayfish Dissection (M H C)
Biological Dissection (includes crayfish) (M H)

Charts:
BioCam Dissection Chart (H C)

DOGFISH

Videos:
Vertebrate Dissection Guides (H C)

EARTHWORM

CD-ROMs:
BioLab Invertebrate (incl. Earthworm)M H

Videos:
Biological Dissection (incl. Earthworm) (M H)
Dissection & Anatomy (H C)

Charts:
BioCam Dissection Chart (H C)

EYE

Videos:
Dissection & Anatomy of Eye (H C)

FETAL PIG

Videos:
Boreal Dissection-Fetal Pig

Models:
Fetal Pig

Charts:
BioCam-Chart-Fetal Pig

FLY

CD-ROMs:
Bio-Lab-Fly

FROG

CD-ROMs:
  The Digital Frog (H C)
  DissectionWorks (series, includes frog) (H C)
  CompuFrog
  Biolab Frog (Mac) (M H)

Videos:
Vertebrate Dissection Guides (H C)
Biological Dissection (includes frog) (M H)

Models:
  Great American Bullfrog (M H C)
  Frog (female or male) (M H C)
  Frog Model activity sheets

Charts:
  BioCam Dissection Chart (H C)
  Frog Scientific Nerve
  Wards Frog (female)

GENETICS

CD-ROMs:
BioLab Fly (M H C)

Diskettes: HyperFly (Windows) C

GRASSHOPPER

Videos:
Dissection & Anatomy of Grasshopper HC

Charts:
BioCam Dissection Chart (H C)

HEART

Videos:
Dissection & Anatomy of Heart

HUMAN

CD-ROMs (for Windows unless noted):
  A.D.A.M. Practice Practical (H C)
  A.D.A.M. Interactive Physiology
  A.D.A.M. Interactive Anatomy (H C)
  A.D.A.M. Standard C
  A.D.A.M. Essentials
  Body Works 5.0 (M H)
  Human Anatomy (C)
  Visible Human (Mac) (H C)
  Home Medical Advisor
  Visible Man
  Nine Months Miracle
  The Ultimate Human Body
  MedWorks
  Biology Lab Series
  3-D Body Adventure
  Body Illustrated
  Heart the Engine of Life
  Stanford University-Video Surgery
  John Hopkins-Simulation Lab Exer.