justin, your protest worked (well it worked so far as being brought to peoples attention)

you got coverage in the courant

perhaps someday, when we all decide to not practice violence and torture each other we can decide at the VERY same time, to NOT practice violence or torture animals as well

Pigs As `Patients' Draws Protest Animal Rights Activists Decry Surgical Training Program



By WILLIAM HATHAWAY, And HILARY WALDMAN Courant Staff Writers

Surgical trainees at Hartford Hospital on Thursday took a course that called for them to plunge their hands into a gory mess on an operating table and try to repair injuries designed to simulate gunshot or stab wounds. Outside the hospital's front entrance, fewer than 10 protesters held placards assailing the damage inflicted upon the "patients" - five, anesthetized, 100-pound pigs used in the regularly scheduled training course."When we tell them they cut open and stab pigs, people gasp," said Justin Goodman, an animal-rights activist who organized Thursday's protest. "They ask for our literature."Although Goodman said his ultimate goal is to stop the use of all animals in research and medical education, the pig protest sheds light on a medical dilemma - how best to prepare doctors to deal with a situation few in the United States will ever face - the need to repair someone severely damaged by trauma..........

.....However, Dr. John J. Pippin, a Dallas cardiologist and research adviser for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, says the great majority of courses to train surgeons do not use live animals.Most surgical training programs, Pippin said, use a combination of simulators, closely supervised practice on human patients and practice on dead human bodies. "The momentum and the trend in modern medical education is not to use live animals because it is not necessary to do so," Pippin said.........