Instead, training should be done on lifelike human simulator manikins. Wash U’s PALS students have access to a state-of-the-art pediatric simulation lab on the campus of St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
97% of U.S. medical institutions offering PALS training do not use live animals.
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The cats are supposed to be anesthetized, but several participants in the video state that the cats they used began to wake up in the middle of the procedure.
The footage also shows a WUSTL veterinarian discussing how each cat is subjected to as many as 15 intubations each session. Yet, studies show that intubating animals more than five times in these trainings can cause them pain and trauma. WUSTL's veterinarian and course leader also both admit that some cats' windpipes are injured during the exercise, which can cause bleeding, swelling, scarring, collapsed lungs, and even death. Each of the nine cats used by WUSTL is subjected to this painful procedure up to four times a year for three years.
WUSTL continues to torment these cats even though research has shown that lifelike infant simulators better teach trainees to intubate babies than practicing on animals.
Despite the availability of superior, lifelike infant simulators, which are used instead of animals at other medical facilities around the country, WUSTL continues to lock nine cats in its laboratories and have trainees repeatedly force hard plastic tubes down their delicate windpipes in a crude attempt to teach students how to intubate human infants. Of the more than 1,000 PALS training facilities, WUSTL appears to be the last facility in the country that is still abusing cats in the course, in defiance of modern science and ethics.
Several unskilled trainees are seen struggling for several minutes to intubate two vulnerable cats named Elliott and Jessie as they repeatedly shove tubes down the cats' windpipes and mishandle metal instruments in a manner that can break the cats' teeth.
