We don’t need to kill animals for the classroom

Tuckahoe, N.Y.: Thank you, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon, for your efforts toward education reform, including parental rights, misused funds, school choice and accountability in higher education. Please also look into the costly, wasteful and brutal taxpayer-funded use of animals killed as “training tools” for dissection in grade schools.

Research shows using animals such as frogs as dissection models in classrooms costs taxpayers millions of dollars per year, as opposed to a fraction of this amount for nonlethal anatomical model alternatives that serve exactly the same purpose. Schools currently consider animals as equipment to be repeatedly thrown in the garbage, while alternative methods are a one-time investment. In addition to the enormous, unnecessary waste of much-needed funds in the school system, the only thing animal dissection teaches children is bullying, domination of others and totally needless cruelty, both rampant in the school system. According to federal statistics, the connection between animal cruelty and human violence is well documented; the needless dissection of animals in schools is conceivably the basis for contempt of all living beings, beginning at a young age.

The millions of taxpayer dollars saved by eliminating this wasteful expenditure can be used toward academic achievement, which by all accounts is severely lacking. Children should be taught to treat themselves, each other and the voiceless beings who share this Earth with respect and kindness. That would be the best basis for a sound education. Kiley Blackman

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