animal body part used in school workshop - OK or not?

[kathymuggle]

What do you think?

DD, vegan, had a workshop at school on anti-smoking. All grade 7's attended.

At it they used part of a pig to demonstrate what would happen to your lungs if you smoked. She was grossed out by the pig part - as were numerous non-veggie classmates.

I am not Ok with the display of raw animal parts, particularly when they are not going to be consumed as food, in society. It seems wasteful of the animal. I also wonder if it is somewhat insensitive of them to use parts of pig knowing there might be vegetarians or vegans in their midst?

What do you think? Should I or DD do anything (fwiw, DD is not impressed with the pig thing, but does not feel complaining will do any good. She never wants to complain though.)

kathy

[Annie Mac]

Just my opinion: unless they asked your daughter to EAT the pig part, I don't see the relevance of her being vegetarian/vegan. I suspect the point was to gross them out & scare them out of smoking. I'm not sure I agree with using fear as such a constant teaching tool, but I don't really know how I feel about them using a pig part to demonstrate. I think I'd need to know more details about the pig. Like did this pig die a natural death, and then they used its body to demonstrate with, or was this pig killed by tobacco smoke in order to use its lungs as a display (I assume that was the body part)? I'd be OK with the first scenario, not so much with the second. I think if it were my kid, and she wasn't completely traumatized, I'd probably be quiet about it. But I'm like your daughter, and tend not to complain except in severe circumstances.

[kathymuggle]

Originally Posted by Annie Mac

Just my opinion: unless they asked your daughter to EAT the pig part, I don't see the relevance of her being vegetarian/vegan..

I think some people are sensitive to animal death. I wish the school were more sensitive.

I am not sure if they should change their curriculum/tools though. It is a hard call.

Schools sometimes do make changes due to the needs or beliefs of the participants - so I am not sure if this is different?

[KJoslyn78]

using an actual pig animal part to show the damnage of smoking would not be ok for me (vegetarian or not) for that age group. High school students (esp 11th-12th grades), sure... but middle school - no freaking way. In my opinoin that is something the school should have informed parents that they were doing, BEFORE doing it, if using raw deceded animal parts was the "only way" (which, is not... there are numerous ways to show the dangerous effetcs of smoking).