Humane Education Award 2003 (Part I): Successful applicants chosen 

InterNICHE announces the successful applicants of the 2003 Humane Education Award (Part I).

InterNICHE offered the 2003 Award to university teachers in India, with support from Dutch anti-vivisection organisation Proefdiervrij. 10 lakh Rupees (20,000 Euro, US$23,000) has been made available in two parts to support initiatives based on enhancing life science education and replacing harmful animal use.

Further details of the Award can be found on this website. Click here for details.

Four applications for Part I of the 2003 Award were judged to be suitable, and will receive financial support. The successful applicants and their projects are:  

1. Dr R Raveendran, chief editor of the Indian Journal of Pharmacology and teacher from the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Pondicherry, will produce a freeware compilation CD of pharmacology simulations of animal experiments. Over 1900 copies of the CD will be distributed free via the Indian Journal of Pharmacology direct to pharmacology teachers and others. The compilation will include the existing freeware alternatives ExPharm T1.00, Heart E1.00, Microlabs, Strathclyde Pharmacology Simulations, and Pharmatutor.  

A lack of educational software packages has been identified as a barrier to implementation of alternatives within pharmacology teaching in India. Western alternatives are rarely distributed in India, or are too expensive for most university departments to buy. Distribution of this CD will support practical changes in the curriculum based on a growing awareness of the potential of computer-assisted learning (CAL). And it will facilitate the replacement of many severe procedures performed on animals in over 800 institutes across the country. 

2. Dr R Moses Inbaraj from the Department of Zoology at Madras Christian College will produce a freeware CD-ROM of a range of zoology dissections for ordinary degree and masters students. Each of the animal cadavers used to produce the alternatives will be ethically-sourced, i.e. the animals will have died naturally or been euthanised secondary to terminal illness or serious non-recoverable injury.  

In recent years, over 1 million animals (100,000 from each of more than 10 species) are estimated to have been killed annually for zoology dissections in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu alone. Economic and legislative considerations have already reduced this total and the number of species studied, but as a result some students are not participating in as much practical work. This freeware CD-ROM will help re-establish a broader range of practical classes in zoology and directly replace many of the dissections of killed animals at Madras Christian College and across the rest of India. 

3. Dr P V S Kishore from the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Histology at NTR College of Veterinary Science in Gannavaram will produce a digital video, CD-ROM and DVD of buffalo calf dissection. The cadaver will be ethically-sourced, and the department will be supported further through the purchase of over 20 existing alternatives in veterinary anatomy, including software, videos and models. 

The alternatives to be produced and implemented will complement on-going reduction of harmful animal use in the Department and encourage the replacement of buffalo calf dissections at many other institutes. New Indian government recommendations are currently reducing the number of buffalo calves killed annually for veterinary anatomy dissections from several thousand to around 800. The funding of new alternatives will further reduce this total and enhance the teaching of veterinary anatomy. 
 
4. Prof P Hak, Dr S Bagchi and Dr D Chakrabarty from the Department of Physiology at Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences and Hospital in Jammu will be provided with a number of cardiac and neuromuscular physiology alternatives to support replacement of animal experiments in the Department.  
InterNICHE considers all the projects to be quality initiatives which will actively bring about replacement of harmful animal use. Proposals are invited for Part II of the Award whose deadline for applications is 10 November 2003.

Major alternatives tour in Japan

Two students of veterinary medicine have   been promoting and demonstrating alternatives throughout Japan with support from InterNICHE. In a tour that took them to the majority of the country’s 16 veterinary colleges during February, March and April of this year, Eriko Goto and Kaisaku Ota spoke about humane alternatives to animal experiments and demonstrated a range of cutting-edge training simulators and mannekins, hi-tech software and other products.

The students, from Nippon and Kitazato Universities respectively, took the initiative to travel the country after facing harmful animal use in their own education. National contact for InterNICHE in Japan, Dr Makiko Nakano, a former conscientious objector who is now a qualified veterinarian, provided support to the students, and 12 exemplary alternatives from the InterNICHE Alternatives Loan System were sent to Japan to be demonstrated at venues during the tour.

The presentations were co-organised with local students and supportive teachers, and up to 100 students and teachers were present at each event. The majority of the country’s teachers of veterinary medicine were therefore successfully exposed to alternatives, many for the first time. Several hundred copies of the new InterNICHE book ‘from Guinea Pig to Computer Mouse’ were also distributed across the country during and after the tour.

According to Dr Nakano, “The attitudes towards alternatives in education have definitely changed in Japan thanks to this tour and to previous work that has been done here. Many of the younger teachers in particular are positive towards alternatives now.”

Some surgical training mannekins are already in use in Japanese veterinary medical education, and there is growing interest in increasing the clinical training opportunities for learning general clinical skills with beneficial work on animal patients. The first university to plan a no-kill surgical training program for all students, Tokyo Noko University, will begin using solely alternative methods in surgery from September 2004. The students and teachers are also looking at the possibilities of securing ethically-sourced animal cadavers for replacement in anatomy teaching.

New Alternatives Award Launched today - for India

The 2003 Humane Education Award was launched today, 19 February 2003, in New
Delhi, India, at the International Conference on Alternatives to Animal
Experiments in Research and Education, organised by the Indian Government.

InterNICHE, supported by Proefdiervrij, announces the Humane Education Award for replacement of harmful animal use in life science education.

Proposals are invited from teachers of biological science, veterinary and human medicine for initiatives to replace harmful animal use in life science education. Rs. 10 lakh is available to be split between successful applicants.

Examples of proposals could include:

• Creation of a freeware CD-ROM, video, model or  mannekin for replacement in one or more practical  courses

• Buying a range of established products for wide replacement within one department

• Setting up a body donation program for ethically-sourced animal cadavers for anatomy and/or basic veterinary surgery training

• Setting up a student-based or patient-based program for training medical students who currently use animals

Each proposal will be judged according to the following criteria and qualities:

• Creativity, resourcefulness, and overall ethical design

•  Potential to replace harmful animal use, based on numbers of animals and/or severity of procedures

•  Potential pedagogic effectiveness, and incorporation of a program of assessment of student learning performance

•  Student involvement in the project/product design

50% of the Award is available in summer 2003, and 50% in autumn 2003.

Deadline A: 20^th April 2003
Deadline B: 10^th September 2003

All proposals will be considered equally, irrespective of the deadline chosen by applicants.

Proposals should include the full contact details and curriculum vitae of the applicant; a detailed description with budget and timescale; and the full contact details of two referees. They will be judged by InterNICHE in conjunction with the Forum for Ethical Science in India.

Please send proposals by post to: ‘2003 Humane Education Award’, InterNICHE, 19 Brookhouse Avenue, Leicester LE2 0JE, England;
And send a copy by e-mail to: coordinator@interniche.org

Shortlisted applicants will be notified and may be asked for further details. Successful applicants will be notified within 1 month of the deadlines.

Russian version launched today

This site is now available in the Russian language. Translated and maintained by webmistress Victoria Meshcheryakova, the site reflects almost identical content to the English language version. News relevant to Russia, the Ukraine, Georgia and other Russian speaking countries will be added over time.

Access the Russian site here

New conscientious objection guide on-line

  A comprehensive guide to conscientious objection, written by Australian vet Dr. Andrew Knight, is now available for downloading from this site. 'Learning Without Killing - a Guide to Conscientious Objection' offers detailed advice to students regarding the practical steps they might take to help implement conscientious objection policies and the use of alternatives in their practical courses. The book also has a number of other chapters addressing the nature and efficacy of alternatives, a collection of student testimonies, and details of further resources.

Read more about this guide and other resources

Replacement in Italy now at 71%

In Italy, thanks to a particularly favourable juridical situation, it has been possible within the last year to abolish experiments on animals performed for didactic purposes in 71% of universities (103 faculties), and to replace them with alternative methods.

We would like to outline the strategy we have been following to achieve this result, in the hope that our experience will prove useful in achieving a similar result in other countries. On October 12, 1993 the Italian Parliament passed a law (413/93) on "Conscientious Objection to Animal Experiments". Article 1. of this law states that:

‘Citizens, in obedience to their conscience, exercising their right to freedom of ideas, conscience, and religion recognised under the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man; the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Rights of Humanity and Basic Liberties; and the International Pact for Civil and Political Rights, and being opposed to violence against all living beings, may state their conscientious objection to any and every act relating to animal experimentation.’

The use of animals in education is dealt with by Article 4:

‘By the inauguration of the academic year subsequent to the date this law goes into effect, courses not involving animal experimentation activities or interventions shall be activated for full academic credit.’

As a consequence of this state of affairs, two problems arose:

 1. The need for different organisation within courses, because each course where animals had been used was to be split into two sections, one for the traditional dissections or other uses of animals; the other with alternative methods for the students who declared their objection.

 2. The cost of some of the alternative methods.

 In practice we supplied the professors with a list of methods. Usually the list was from the wonderful book ‘From Guinea Pig to Computer Mouse’, from where they can freely choose the material they wish to receive; and we created a fund named ‘Education without Animals’ to purchase the chosen methods. The fund was supported by some animal rights associations and by some Italian Municipalities.

 As a results, 91 Italian scientific faculties (faculties of Medicine and Surgery, faculties of Natural, Physical and Mathematical Sciences, faculties of Pharmacy and faculties of  Veterinary Medicine) have already decided to no longer use animals for any demonstrative-teaching purposes.

  The declarations that some faculties issued are particularly interesting: 

• University of Veterinary of Pisa declares: the possibility to carry out the educational by demonstrative methods that do not involve the induction of pathologies on animals and/or the killing of any healthy animals.

• University of Pharmacy of Pavia declares: the possibility, that has already been successfully put into effect, to replace the traditional educational - demonstrative animal tests by methods that do not involve the use of any dead or alive animals.

• University of Sciences of Modena declares: replacement of the traditional didactic-demonstrative tests on animals by  didactic-demonstrative tests that do not involve the use of any dead or living animals is possible; and recognises the cheaper economic cost, in the medium-term, of such replacement.

• University of Veterinary of Parma declares: The validity of the alternative methods is demonstrated.

• University of Veterinary of Messina declares: The alternative methods are valid and useful for the cultural and professional preparation.

• University of Veterinary of Milano declares: Videos and CD-Roms are valid alternative to the biological material coming from living animals.

• University of Veterinary of Padova declares: The alternative methodologies are modern, of a good scientific level and adequate to the European requests.

• University of Veterinary of Teramo declares: The alternative methods are efficient for education without any doubts

 All this has been possible thanks to the existence in Italy of a law granting the right to conscientious objection to vivisection, but we think that the example of a high percentage of institutions of higher learning in a developed country switching to animal-free methods could be very useful everywhere to show that it is no longer possible for anyone to declare that the use of animals is necessary.

Dr. Marina Berati
Yuri Bautta

Click here to see the complete list of faculties that don't use animals in Italy.

Enlarged Alternatives Loan System

The InterNICHE Alternatives Loan System has been enlarged and improved, and a wide range of products are now available for free international loan. They include multimedia CD-ROMs, videos, models and mannequins from fields such as anatomy, physiology and pharmacology, giving you the opportunity to familiarise yourself with some of the best products available. All items have been chosen with reference to meeting teaching objectives for practical classes where animals are used harmfully in some university departments. Thanks to Proefdiervrij for financial support.

New discussion list

Join our new e-mail discussion list! Whether you are a teacher interested in alternatives, a student facing an animal practical, or a producer - make announcements and share your thoughts, ask the list members your questions, or just read what the others have posted. The list is only for issues relating to animal use and alternatives in education.