A new synthetic frog could make dissection of real frogs obsolete. PETA and SynDaver, a producer of synthetic human and animal parts for surgical training, have partnered to created SynFrog, a realistic and anatomically-correct frog facsimile.
Designed to match the appearance and feel of a living organism, SynFrog allows for a safer, more precise learning experience. Students avoid formaldehyde and formalin which are used to preserve dead frogs, making dissection a nontoxic activity. And the SynFrog’s organs are removable and colored making the learning process clearer, more effective, and more accurate.
Image Credit: PETA
SynFrogs provide a kind learning experience as students do not have to participate in and desensitize themselves to the dismemberment of what was once a living being. More than 3 million frogs are removed from the wild and killed every year just for classroom dissections, and with amphibian populations under threat, finding compassionate and humane options to replace dissection is more important than ever.
Image Credit: SynDaver
“PETA has promoted virtual dissection for years, but some teachers still request ‘hands-on’ teaching tools—and that’s where the SynFrog comes in,” said PETA Vice President of International Laboratory Methods Shalin Gala. “It’s safer, more effective, and more humane than cutting up dead animals—a practice that’s now destined for the trash bin of archaic education methods.”
What’s New…
We have seen here some appalling treatment meted out by man to our fellow creatures, yet also the inborn goodness of animals showing pity and ‘humanity’ to other creatures- a stray dog keeping kittens safe and warm in the cold-befriending other species, including man who is lonely or suffering-we should feel small and should learn from them.
Fantastic idea! In any case, dissection in schools is just another way to support the industry of vivisection.. one of the most despicable industries on the planet.( this includes the vivisectors themselves) Many of us went to schools where vivisection didn’t exist. We all graduated and went to college, university etc. Vivisection is NOT necessary to make you a successful human. It only serves to teach kids CRUELTY! #BanVivisection !! As George Bernard Shaw said : Vivisection is a social evil, because if it advances human knowledge, it does so at the expense of human character!
And, as true as G.B.S.’s statement about vivisection being a social evil, it has also not advanced human knowledge. On the contrary, these words by Britain’s first woman doctor represent what has always been the over-all result. Just like one can’t squeeze blood out of a stone, one also cannot obtain good out of evil:
“The spiritual malady that rages in the soul of the vivisector is in itself sufficient to render him incapable of acquiring the highest and best knowledge. He finds it easier to propagate and multiply disease than to discover the secret of health. Seeking for the germs of life, he invents only new methods of death.” – Anna Kingsford, MD
THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF DOCTORS AGAINST VIVISECTION
http://www.medicinekillsmillions.com/articles/doctors_anti-vivisection.html
Why dissect frogs anyway? What purpose does it serve? How can it assist in diagnosing and treating humans? I know this is a step forward but makes me wonder about all the other poor creatures suffering in the name of science that we are unaware of.
EXACTLY, Sara. People do things because they’re taught to do them, without asking WHY.
Thank you for everything you do Ladyfreethinker.
Awesome idea.
WOW — THANK YOU SO MUCH — THANK YOU for all the smart, creative people — you’re the BEST.
PURE AWESOMENESS
This is a win for students, schools, and animals! Killing and cutting up animals is unnecessary and inexcusable, especially since modern teaching methods like SynFrog have been shown to teach biology as well as or better than dissecting real animals.
I don’t understand people who allow that their children do animal dissection in schools. I’d rather uneducate my child than put it into hands of senseless monsters.
Perhaps someone could explain the NEED for students to know what the inside of a frog looks like in the first place. That is, unless they’re all going to be frog surgeons. I maintain that there is no such need.
In my high school biology class, in 1966, we were cutting up dead crayfish, fetal pigs, etc., and I was the ONLY student in the class who aspired to be a veterinarian. I doubt I’d be doing surgery on a crayfish any time, but I guess you never know… However, it seemed like just an exercise in desensitization. Boys were cutting off body parts and throwing them at girls, and those other students didn’t have any interest in helping animals.
In the next year, in physiology, cats in plastic bags were brought in – one for each student. First of all, I could tell that the cats had been murdered in an inhumane manner in order to turn them into dissection “specimens.”
And yet, while all the future plumbers, electricians, businessmen, secretaries, etc., stayed and participated in this CHARADE, I (the aspiring veterinarian) walked out in protest, and complained to the school principal.
So, I did not become a veterinarian, but became an animal activist instead. Since that time, I’ve known two other people who went even further in their “education,” but dropped out of veterinary school because of the atrocious cruelty of vivisection involved. I did meet (3 decades ago) a veterinarian involved with an animal rights organization. I asked him how he could have been involved in such atrocities. He replied, “I lost touch with my feelings for awhile, but thank God I got them back.”
So, it’s not surprising to me that I’ve subsequently run into veterinarians who have not been the most sensitive, or intuitive, practitioners around. I also strongly feel that the desensitization is introduced to young people in classrooms for reasons of preserving and furthering of cruelly exploitive industries.
The bottom line is that there is and NEVER HAS BEEN ANY NEED whatsoever for students to dissect animals in school classrooms. Vivisection and supplying animals for dissection is a self-perpetuating industry. The lengthy “search for “alternatives.” followed by a lengthy effort to get them installed, is a distraction.
You’re correct, Sue. It’s of course an improvement to use simulators, but for what real purpose is any of this being done at all? You said it! People are such creatures of habit, mindlessly just doing what’s been done before, regardless of any common sense or principles, moral or otherwise. It’s chilling knowing that a good number of sociopaths are encouraged and/or created by such things as animal dissections. The human race is incredibly foolish, regardless of all the bragging about massive brains, etc. It’s so comforting to know though, that we’ll still have no shortage of “frog surgeons” even if they all “train” on simulators. Better those than real animals anyways; but now, how many schools will actually use the new product? Since it really is about desensitizing young people.
It’s about time someone came up with this.
Now, if only they could fabricate synthetic cats, so millions won’t be killed for medical dissection classes.
This Synthetic Frog Could Help Stop Cruel Animal Dissection
Anything that prevents suffering is good.
Fantastic! There is no need to yank real frogs out of the wild just for biology class.and then dispose of the poor thing after it has not been taken seriously by 99.9% of high school students anyway.
It’s about time. I was interested in science & became a nurse. I didn’t think the frog killing was okay even back then. I can honestly say that killing a frog did nothing toward making me a better nurse. I’m just saying. .