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Hi, and I have a problem. In biology this year, I have to disect a frog. I never want to hurt an animal, and I am a vegiterrian, and I do not want to do that. Cutting up and animal is wrong. Has anybody else had to deal with this? Should I talk to my teacher? Stay home from school?? What should I do I refuse to do it whether they have to throw me out the window I will never disect an animal even if it was already dead. They cannot make me.:(
I know how you feel. I had to disect a worm, frog, fish, grasshopper, and a cow eyeball last year in 8th grade. Just tell your teacher you are uncomfortable with doing this. Thats what half my class did last year, and the teacher made the people who weren't shy anbout cutting up animals, cut up scared peoples animals. You teacher may be different though.
Most (not all) biology teachers will be understanding about this. I remember when I was in junior high and high school I had a problem with this too. You just need to nicely speak to them and tell them you have a problem with this and see if you can do a written assignment instead.
If you can talk to your teacher, ask about alternatives. There are some computer programs that allow you to "dissect" without touching anything. I love animals, and always have, but I did all the dissecting for everyone. I knew the creatures had been long dead, had long since gone to "froggie heaven" so I knew I wasn't hurting them.
I became vegetarian at 13, and had the same problem. I probably didn't handle it properly, and ended up sitting on my backside outside the classroom for the sessions :) In the overall scheme of things, I didn't learn anything from either dissecting or sitting outside, but Karen's idea of computer-generated programs is a good one.
I know, I talked to Mr. Guiffreda. He said that I could do the computer thing that some of you mentioned. Thank god, but I am still uneasy about even disecting a fake animal, on a computer. I just don't like looking at animals' guts and digging into it, but at least I don't have to actually "do" it.:)
Floppsy in another post didn't you say you were putting salt on slugs to kill them? If you can do that I think you can handle looking at a fake frog on a computer screen.
Yeah, but as I said I have a very BAD HABIT of saying STUPID things. I'm trying hard not to. I'm really embarrassed about that.:(
And if you want to be a veterinarian, the sooner you get over being squeamish, the better your studies will go!
Karen is right about being squeamish. In vet school you are going to have to work with animal cadavors (sp?). In college when you take anatomy and physiology and some of the other courses you'll need for vet school you are going to HAVE to dissect animals. I wanted to be a vet too when I was younger, but then I realized I didn't have the stomach for it. Shots and surgery... yuck. So I choose music instead.
Disecting a dead animal isn't that bad, because it doesn't even look real nor feel real nor smell real, it looks & feels like rubber & smells of chemicals. I disected a frog, a pig & a rat (I even owned pet rats at that time), the biggest reason it didn't bother me, was because I have the need to learn & at that time I wanted to be a vet. The animals don't even bleed. The pigs were never ever alive, they were boorn still born or were in a slottered pig. & the rats had experiments done to them. & with the frogs, they put them into fridges which caused hybernation & then were killed, painlessly. If you want to become a vet, I sudjest u disect the animal to gan experience & to help u get over the fear of hurting a dead animal, because in vet college, the animals may be alive (depends if u get into an awsome college or not, & maybe that college is just here in canada, the college is a vet & a college at the same time).
& once u start disecting the animal u'll realize that its alot of fun, because u get to see the organs up close & its a much better feel then doing it on the computer. In my class alot of girls were saying they'll never touch it, but by the end of the class, they were having a blast.
I'm someone who has dreamed of becoming a vet, but a fall caused me to do poorly in math, I can hardly do basic math now :( & I was ok at it... now I'm studying Police Foundations at algonquin college, I seem to be great at it & I have a great riffle & assault riffle shot, I need more practice with my hand guns... hehe
Jess
If you want to be a vet it would be a lot better to do the actual disecting as you are going to be doing quite a bit of it on college. You will also have to perform surgerys on live animals!
I'm going to do the computer thing anyway. Plus, I might not be a vet, I said that it was one of my three choices. A vet, an animal rescuer, or an explorer, and I really do not think that you have to disect a frog when you are in college for learning how to climb a mountain!
As for the slug thing:
I was just so scared of the bugs, and the salt was right, there, so I just did it. I hate bugs. I felt bad for the slugs, afterwords. I'm not going to do that to the slugs anymore.:(
Oh yeah, and I just want to be a normal vet, not a surgical one. I would never even try to be a surgean. It is too much pressure. I mean, what if you accidently kill them? It would be way to scary to be responsible for a living animal's, or person, for that matter's, life. :eek: :eek:
Flopsy- Um.... just to let you know hun.... if you plan on being a vet, and don't want to cut up animals... say good-bye to the veterinarian job!!! My friends mom is a vet and we got on that topic a while ago, she told me all the critters she had to dig through. I'm not going to say what animals, so I don't make anyone sick (your welcome) all I will say is it was far more worse than a little froggy!!
I personally I am not squeemish about dead aniamals. Mainly because my dad and I are hunters ( NO OFFENSE TO ANYONE). My dad usually does the work of cleaning it, because if I did it, there would be no meat left :p . But I do understand when people are uneasy about this subject: Everyones different.
I was an avid biology student in high school and an animal lover at the same time. For some reason, dissection never bothered me. We started with earthworms, I think, and I took two elective years of additional Biology, Anatomy and Advance Biology. We dissected frogs, fetal pigs, and even a cat. It was hard, but we learned so much, and if you truly want to enter the medical field, it is such a good basis of learning.
I say "buck up" and do what you have to do, in a respectful manner. Or do the computer version and change your career path...no vet that I know of can get by without blood and surgery.
Logan
But.... there are TONS of other jobs that deal with animals, put not digging in them, so don't give up quite yet with the whole animal deal! :D :) ;)
ummm... from the info I got from the vet college, there really is only one kind of vet, & all of them do surgery, some major in dogs or cats or birds, etc. but they all do surgery, even the vet assistant has to help with surgery, because the assistants r the nurses. Maybe u would be a better zooalogest (major poor spelling), try looking into that, I'm not 100% sure what the do, but it might be better then a vet
I was always "there" when we disected animals in biology (frog, fetal pig, earthworm, starfish, etc.) but I wasn't usually the one doing the disecting. Of course most of the boys think it's fun anyway, and won't let anyone else touch it lol. We didn't have a computer version. At least we did the disections in groups though.
I thought about being a vet myself a loooooooooong time ago. I know now that I'd NEVER want to do surgery. I've thought about the vet assistant lately. I'm going to have to look more into what is involved with that. I don't know if I'm cut out for it or not.
I know, I had the same dilemma. We had to disect a starfish, worm, frog, fetal pig and a cat. I couldn't watch the pig or cat. I had to do this in biology and advanced anatomy.
I observed the disecting of animals in biology, but didn't do any of the cutting or touching of anything. When I was younger, I thought for awhile that I wanted to be a vet or a doctor. After I realized that I would have to disect animals (and people) no matter what, to be in any type of medical field (animal or people), I decided to go with my other love, architecture. :)
Ok, Ok, fine I'll do it! I will have to do it, because I AM going to be a vet, and I AM NOT going to settle for a puny little job such as a vetrinry assisitant (sorry, no offense to anybody who wants/is one). I AM going to have Dr. before my name, and I might as well just go throuhg with it. I can't belive I'm gunna do it...geez, I HATE bio!! If only I could drop out of it! :(
I'm sorry you think being a vet tech is a puny job. I want to be a vet tech, I think after I finish up my degree I want to go back to school to become a vet tech. I think it's a great job, you get to do so many different things as a vet tech.
Sorry. I didn't mean to insult anyone, if anybody is insulted. I just want to do something big, and I just heard about tornado chasers! Tht would be so cool to do because I could become famous. The problem is, I want to live in Alaska and I have wanted to all my life, so I guess I would be better off snow-mobiling around looking for snowstorms and avalanches. :D
I had to:
7th grade: Worms
8th grade: Frogs
Biology I: Worms again i think and Crawfish
BiologyII: Fish, Sharks (i'm still trying to figure out how we go fresh sharks in the middle of the country) Crawfish, and Grasshoppers
If I would have taken Anatomy (thank God it was only given 1 hr and that was my band hour cuz I wouldn't have been able to do it) we would have had to do Cats and pig fetuses
I was the one who usually did the cutting cuz I was always put with the girls who were afraid to touch the things (Sorry if that insulted any1, I'm a tomboy so it never bothered me to touch them it was the cutting)