By
the Los Angeles News Group (Originally in English)
A recent article on the CNN website (http://www.cnn.com/)
reports that the State of Virginia in the U. S. has enacted a new law
requiring its schools to offer students alternatives to animal dissection
in science and biology classes. Virginia thus joins a growing number
of American states with laws that allow students to opt out of dissecting
cats, earthworms, fetal pigs and other creatures, reflecting a global
trend toward more compassionate treatment of animals as humanity enters
the Golden Age.
Young people are often especially sensitive to the
plight of our fellow beings, as shown by the case of Virginia high school
student Grace Kendall, who knew back in the seventh grade that she did
not want to cut open a preserved frog in her science class. Her teacher
allowed her to use a computer alternative, and she has refused to dissect
animals ever since. As Grace puts it, “I thought there was something
really wrong with dissecting a dead animal when I knew there were other
options. Dissecting something that was killed so we could learn about
it was unsettling.” These highly mature and compassionate sentiments
from a pure-hearted girl reveal the growing enlightenment that many
youngsters around the world are experiencing with respect to the loving
treatment of all beings. This trend can also be seen in the recent rise
of vegetarianism and animal rights activism in high schools, colleges
and universities around the globe.
Grace also said she is glad that Virginia has joined
the other states in the U. S. that have enacted laws allowing students
to avoid dissecting animals. Beginning this academic year, all Virginia
students must be told that they can choose not to dissect animals without
being penalized, and instructors must provide them with alternative
learning tools such as computer programs, Internet tutorials and plastic
models.
The law is also being supported by many teachers,
such as Rebecca Ross, a senior anatomy, physiology and biology instructor
at Cave Spring High School in Roanoke County, Virginia, who is also
president-elect of the National Association of Biology Teachers. Ms.
Ross agrees that students with “moral, philosophical, religious
or ethical” objections to dissection should be able to use alternative
learning methods in the classroom. Virginia is among nine U. S. states
that require school districts to provide options to dissection. In 1985,
Florida was the first to pass such a law, followed by California in
1988. New Jersey is also considering similar legislation. On the international
level, Argentina, India and Israel are among the nations that have completely
banned animal dissection in schools.
This trend away from dissection is largely driven
by groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
and the Humane Society of the United States, which encourage students
to oppose the practice, arguing that animals used for dissection suffer
during their capture, handling and killing, and that the practice thus
devalues animal life. “We believe that dissection in the classroom
is an antiquated [teaching] method and promotes the widespread abuse
of animals,” says Jacqueline Domac of PETA. The Humane Society
estimates that currently six million animals — mostly frogs, fetal
pigs and cats — are dissected each year in American high schools.
The Society distributes anti-dissection videos and loans alternative
instructional software to schools to help in eliminating the practice
from the U. S. educational system.
The movement away from dissection in education is
a needed step in enhancing humanity’s compassion and awareness
of the oneness of all life on the planet. For, as Supreme Master Ching
Hai says, we have been blind to our fellow creatures’ welfare
and right to co-exist with us for far too long: “For thousands
of years we have been unkind to each other, including our younger brothers
and sisters, like the animals. In the Bible it is said, ‘As you
sow, so shall you reap.’ And if we believe in the Bible we have
sowed too many things that will yield undesirable fruit for us. So the
only [way] to avoid the fruit is to avoid the sowing of the seed. We
have to start to be more God-worshipping, God loving, God-fearing. We
have to love in action; love Hirm and love Hiers children. God doesn’t
permit us to kill even to make offerings to Hirm, much less to satisfy
our very temporary physical [existence]. So this is the cause of most
of our disasters and sickness in this world. We just have to be loving
and that’s the only religion there is” (Excerpt from videotape
#395 Love is the Only Religion).