Please Stop Using Cats for Cruel Intubation Training
- by: Matt Cornett
- recipient: Washington University in St. Louis
Cat intubation is wrong. The American Heart Association which creates the curriculum for and sponsors the PALS course, strongly oppose animal use in the program, previously stating that "the AHA recommends that any hands-on intubation training for the AHA PALS course be performed on lifelike human manikins."
"[A]s a training tool, animals are not helpful because they possess drastically different anatomy from that of human infants, which can mislead course participants and give them a false sense of confidence in their skills. … There is absolutely no evidence in the scientific literature to indicate that using animals to teach this procedure is effective on its own or that it improves the skills of those trained on simulators."
Please immediately end the use of animals in the PALS course and switch to modern and humane simulators.
- I got most of my information on this from PETA, all text belongs to them & is credited to them.
I was very dismade to learn that your university, The Washington University in St. Louis is the last facility in the country still subjecting cats to cruel procedures in its Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) course!
In undercover video footage obtained by PETA, two vulnerable cats had tubes forced & shoved down their windpipes up to 15 times, each by unskilled trainees during crude intubation exercises in a recent WUSTL PALS course conducted in conjunction with St. Louis Children's Hospital. In the video obtained by PETA, the students are seen struggling to properly intubate the cats, placing the animals at risk for serious injury, and several students state that the cats they used woke up during their training sessions even though the animals were supposed to be adequately anesthetized. Repeated intubation can cause cats bleeding, swelling, scarring, collapsed lungs, and even death. Each of the nine cats currently locked in a laboratory at your university are subjected to this painful procedure up to four times a year for three years...
PALS course creator and sponsor the American Heart Association (AHA) has taken a strong stance against the use of animals in this program. The organization has stated publicly on repeated occasions that it "does not require or endorse the use of animals in PALS courses" and that "the AHA recommends that any hands-on intubation training for the AHA PALS course be performed on lifelike human manikins." And every other PALS facility across the country--including Saint Louis University, Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, and St. Louis Community College--exclusively uses human simulators that have been shown to better teach trainees how to intubate babies.
Please immediately end the use of animals in the PALS course and switch to modern and humane simulators!
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