USE OF ANIMALS FOR COURSES
GENERAL INFORMATION
Guidelines for Faculty and Students With Respect to the Use of Animals in Instruction
Background: On December 8, 1987, the Cornell University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approved a series of guidelines recommended to them by the University Animal Welfare Committee. These guidelines were prepared by a subcommittee of faculty members, after they had the opportunity to evaluate the use of animals in undergraduate teaching (and student concerns for the same) from a representative sample of instructors.
Guidelines
1. For demonstrating certain principles and procedures the use of animals in teaching is recognized as an invaluable, often essential, pedagogical device.
2. For courses in which vertebrate animals are to be used in dissection, surgery or in other experimental procedures, the course description that appears in the Announcement "Courses of Study" should alert students to this fact.
3. A detailed description of the intended use of vertebrate animals should be available to students upon request to the instructor in each course.
4. Faculty members are encouraged to explain their reasons and need for using vertebrate animals and should indicate to students the availability of the procedures described in item 8 below.
5. Students are encouraged to discuss their concerns about the instructional use of vertebrate animals with the instructor in the course.
6. When consistent with pedagogical objectives, faculty members are encouraged to consider adopting alternative methods and procedures that do not involve the use of live animals.
7. When students object on ethical or other valid grounds, to participating in an exercise using vertebrate animals, instructors are encouraged to provide alternative means when consistent with pedagogical objectives, for learning the same material.
8. A student who is reluctant to voice his or her concerns about animal use in a particular course or who thinks these concerns have not received proper attention may seek assistance from the Director of the Cornell Center for Research Animal Resources (253-3520).
