PETA recently learned that after receiving letters from our Laboratory Investigations Department, a member of the state legislature, and concerned medical professionals, the University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC) has canceled a course in which kittens and rabbits were used as training tools for pediatricians and nurses to practice endotracheal intubations and chest decompressions. While this decision is a great first step, UCHC has not eliminated the course permanently.
Endotracheal intubation consists of passing a tube through the mouth or nose into the trachea in order to aid someone who is experiencing breathing difficulties or requires respiratory support. When kittens are used for intubation training, inexperienced students force plastic tubes into kittens' throats through their noses or mouths up to 20 times per session.
The animals can suffer from bruising, bleeding, and scarring in their throats as well as severe pain and a lingering cough. In some cases, complications from endotracheal intubation can cause tracheal ruptures that result in subcutaneous emphysema, shortness of breath, painful breathing, collapsed lungs, and even death.
After these training sessions, when kittens are grown, most are placed in other experiments, including ones in which experimenters drill holes into cats' skulls and immobilize them in restraint chairs. The cats are later killed.
Kittens and rabbits are not good models for humans, and most medical schools have switched to superior human-like simulators to teach intubation and chest decompression techniques. In fact, more than 95 percent of all U.S. medical schools do not use animals for any part of standard medical-student education.
Please contact UCHC officials and ask them to follow the lead of prestigious institutions like Harvard and Dartmouth by permanently abandoning these cruel and unnecessary training courses and replacing them with one of the many ethical, human-relevant alternatives.
