Group blasts surgeons’ training on dogs

POCATELLO, Idaho – An Idaho program that uses dogs from an animal shelter for surgical training has been condemned by a national group that wants it to use mannequins instead.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine opposes the Idaho Committee on Trauma’s yearly surgical skills lab at Idaho State University. The physicians committee is a Washington, D.C.-based group that promotes ethical animal treatment.

Officials with the trauma program say mannequins aren’t as effective for training as live animals.

Dogs from the Pocatello Animals Shelter are sedated and unconscious while participants in the two-hour course perform tracheotomies, or cutting a hole in the wind pipe and inserting an airway; insert chest tubes to evacuate blood and air; and insert a catheter into the abdominal cavity to check for blood. The animals are then euthanized.

“There are different ways to die,” said Dr. John J. Pippin, a member of the physicians group. “There is the humane way of getting a shot. It’s very peaceful. This is a whole different issue.”

Pippin said his group plans to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture this month that the ISU lab violates the federal Animal Welfare Act because ISU owns high-tech mannequins that could be used.

Officials involved with the Idaho Committee on Trauma, affiliated with the American College of Surgeons, counter that they’ve offered the training for 25 years without complaint.

“I’m disappointed this group would suggest we’re doing something illegal, because we’re not,” said ISU professor Alex Urfer, noting his program was accredited three weeks ago by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animals.