Should animals be used for training new nurses? Iggy Pop doesn't
think so. The punk rock icon is trying to convince the University of
Michigan to stop using animals in its nurse training programs. He is
joined in this opinion by officials for the People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA).
Iggy Pop, also known as James Osterberg, wrote a letter to the U-M
President Mary Sue Coleman to state his disappointment in hearing about
a survival flight course that teaches nurses intubation and trauma
skills on animals, putting plastic tubes down cats' throats and into
pigs' hearts. "It's common sense that cutting apart pigs and maiming
cats isn't the best way to train people to treat humans," wrote the
Michigan native, Osterberg, who attended U-M and is a longtime PETA
supporter. "U-M should not be harming animals when better alternatives
are available and already in use on campus. Please make the switch to
nonanimal training methods for U-M's survival flight course."
"This is a highly specialized course," U-M spokesman Rick Fitzgerald
said. "We feel that it is a critical part of the training."
U-M said that it received the letter but remain firm in their decision
to use animals in the training course. U-M also had a formal complaint
filed against it from PETA with the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) in September. When questioned, U-M officials said that there was
no substitute for animals in this type of training, but PETA disagrees,
claiming that simulators are just as effective and more popularly used
in trauma training. A USDA inspector followed up, visiting the
university in October, but no citations were issued, according to U-M
officials.
The University is even under attack for their use of animals in training
from within. The Michigan Student Assembly passed a resolution 21-1
early in November condemning the "cruel and outdated use of animals" in
the survival flight training course. Instead, the group encouraged the
university to use simulators. The resolution was co-sponsored by the
Michigan Animal Rights Society.
The Air and Surface Transport Nurses Association, the national
organization that represents professional flight nurses in the field,
endorses the use of human-like simulators over animals in survival
flight courses around the country. The group says that nearly all
training facilities nationwide have phased out the use of animals.
Justin Goodman, associate director of PETA's Laboratory Investigations,
said that other experts have also pleaded with the university, arguing
instead for simulators as a better way to give nurses trauma training.
PETA has urged celebrities, like Iggy Pop, to advocate for the animals,
since the university is not taking heed of the opinions of experts or
their own students.