Alternatives progress in Russia and Ukraine

Introduction

An April 2006 outreach visit from InterNICHE to cities in Russia and Ukraine has brought about further replacement of harmful animal use across the region, including a signed agreement to end animal experiments in physiology and pharmacology education at Kazan State Veterinary Academy. More experiments have been replaced and a multimedia lab established in St Petersburg since the InterNICHE visit in October 2005 (1), and a Regional Meeting has gathered together campaigners from former Soviet countries to share experiences, train in alternatives and build the movement for humane education.


Outreach to Kazan

Kazan is the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, situated nearly 500 miles east of Moscow. Contact with the important Kazan State Veterinary Academy had been made through teachers who had asked to borrow alternatives from the InterNICHE Russian micro-Loan System. The teachers had learned about this and other resources from the VITA presence at academic conferences in Moscow.

The visit to Kazan by Nick Jukes and Lena Maroueva from InterNICHE was an important outreach trip that has helped implement alternatives in and beyond Kazan. As well as the presentations to students and teachers, one-to-one meetings with key individuals, and opportunities for information gathering, it also brought an end to all invasive and stressful animal experiments in physiology and pharmacology education. 

Vice-Rector and Head of Physiology, Prof Talgat Valirahmanovitch Garipov, explained that the Academy is very old and respected, with lots of teaching experience and a prominent physiology department. Innovations from teachers throughout the history of the Academy include the current interest in alternatives. Although still enthusiastic about the value of frogs for experiments, Prof Garipov has helped replace much harmful animal use and is clearly interested in the modernisation of education. 

The feedback on the alternatives borrowed include the comment on the software developed at the University of Marburg, "SimNerv is a miracle: I want it." The physiology department is now using the English version of the freeware Physiology Simulators CD that was developed through the InterNICHE Humane Education Award. The freeware "fits our practical classes perfectly", and has helped replace a range of frog heart, nerve, muscle and other experiments. The new Russian version of the freeware, sponsored by WSPA and launched this year, was gratefully received by the teachers. 

The discussions and negotiations between InterNICHE and the Academy in the year before the visit contributed to the establishment of the multimedia lab in which students use the freeware, reflecting not only the interests of teachers in improving the quality of learning but also the investment in and support for the Academy from the Tatarstan Minister of Agriculture. 

The purchase of software, however, is still a challenge economically. There is little other freeware available, and the cost of many western alternatives, especially physiology and pharmacology software, is prohibitive for Russia and other former Soviet and 'developing' countries. There is significant potential for replacement and for enhancing life science education if producers would reduce the cost of software - at the very least by having a pricing system that is tiered according to whether countries are hard or soft currency.

During the visit to Kazan Nick and Lena did come across an animal experiment in progress, which "shouldn't have happened", but few invasive experiments are now performed in education. The Academy follows the Russian government's Recommendation Letter number 13032/358, 'About modern alternatives to the use of animals in the educational process' of 22 February 2005 (1), and therefore does not do the severe experiments described in the document. 

As well as the curricular changes that have brought about replacement of harmful animal use with software alternatives, the Academy also has a clinic, and companion animal guardians often agree that students can observe and assist in therapeutic operations. This 'alternative' approach is typical of many institutes, though it usually accompanies the animal experiments that are performed. Furthermore, in some cases the operation provides little useful education for students - the main focus being for teachers to earn private money to compensate for their low income. 

According to Prof Garipov, a small spay-neuter program has also been established in the city, with some input from students, although the program's effectiveness in terms of stray animal population control is unknown. Animal advocates report the continued killing of strays in the city. Fewer cats and dogs are used in the Academy than some other institutes because of the Academy's agricultural focus and the cost of these animals. Those that are used for dissection are usually the strays killed by the city authorities, and some zoo animals. 

Students are also involved in non-invasive experiments such as making animals exercise in order to study their physiological responses. A range of films of dissections and experiments, made at the Academy from the 1980's onwards, are used for partial replacement, and some may be re-made soon in order to create improved versions. Wild animal behaviour is also studied from wildlife films. 

The Academy has numerous historical black and white photographs of animal experiments through the decades on the displays on departmental walls and in the small museums. Examples include photographs of dogs immobilised in harnesses and with tubes leading from their stomachs, surrounded by serious teachers and researchers proudly holding a rack of test tubes or showing off their myography equipment; images from revolutionary times of students wearing military uniforms watching the dissection of a cow, or group photographs showing the first female students allowed to study at the Academy.

There are also of course the standard portraits of teachers with rows of medals on their chests, and of staff meetings and conferences with portraits of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin looming over them. One wall of the multimedia lab has a display of the pages of a Soviet book from 1949 with drawings of animal experiments, vivisection equipment, and images of Ivan Pavlov at work. This provides an interesting contrast with the present-day humane educational practice. 

Many more photographs of experimentation were typically displayed in Soviet times: such experiments were a source of pride, reflecting each institute's participation in 'progress'. This scientific endeavour in the service of the country often deemed the ethical dimension irrelevant - if it was considered at all. The Soviet cultural myth of progress is of course echoed in the myths of modern-day capitalism and medicine, with the instrumental use of animals for perceived benefit still commonplace today. 

Like many unethical practices, however, the myths that underpin them are under threat from the critical eye, from the growth and demonstrated efficacy of cutting-edge knowledge and techniques, and from the results of ethical assessment. This and the successful implementation of alternatives suggest that the instrumental use of animals is not as sustainable as its protagonists may hope. 

The Agreement between InterNICHE and the physiology and pharmacology departments, signed by Prof Garipov, helps consolidate the shift towards alternatives at the Academy. It states that the two departments agree to end all "invasive and/or stressful" experiments on animals, and the dissection of killed animals, in education, thereby giving students greater opportunities to access a range of more ethical and more effective approaches for gaining knowledge and skills. Examples of the non-harmful use of animals in experiments, and a definition of 'ethically-sourced' animal cadavers, were provided for clarity. 

This significant Agreement with the Academy in Kazan adds to that made in St Petersburg and the progress achieved in Velikie Luki, giving another good example to help further replacement across Russia. The Agreement did not, however, include an end to experiments at the postgraduate level, as had been agreed at the St Petersburg State Veterinary Academy in October 2005. 

It should be remembered that the nature of Russia is such that knowing the exact situation in an institute is only really possible through good and perhaps repeated contact with those who work there or are students. Nevertheless, while follow-up and further information gathering at already-visited places is important, there are a growing number of places where invitations have been extended for an InterNICHE visit. There is a strong need for further outreach to these major cities and academic centres across Russia, which when supported by donations of software, mannekins and occasionally hardware will achieve further replacement. Such visits can also limit specific cruel practices through exposure to alternatives and by ending the provincial isolation that can hide them. 

As with most outreach visits, presentations at the Academy from the InterNICHE representatives were given to several hundred teachers and students, detailing the advantages and broad range of alternative tools and approaches for education, and the resources available. As Tatarstan has a Muslim majority, the presentations also included reference to Islam and the research done by InterNICHE on theological arguments against vivisection and in favour of alternatives in education (2).

Basic demonstrations of a range of alternatives, including mannekins and simulators, followed the spoken presentations. The Russian version of the InterNICHE book from Guinea Pig to Computer Mouse (2nd ed.) (3) and of the film Alternatives in Education was distributed on CD, along with freeware and the first Russian-language printed booklet on alternatives and student testimonies. 

The experience of InterNICHE illustrates the impact of well-directed small grants for creating real and sustainable change. Further progress is therefore possible when the required funding is provided for projects such as further outreach visits, mass-duplicating and distributing the Russian-language physiology and pharmacology freeware, significantly enlarging the micro-Loan System, and ensuring a strong alternatives presence at more academic conferences.


Other Russia and Ukraine news

In St Petersburg, a team of InterNICHE and IAAPEA representatives checked on the progress of the replacement achieved and the computer lab set up in October 2005 at the State Veterinary Academy. This visit was positive and productive. The pharmacology department are using the freeware CAL Pharmacology Compilation CD and no more animals in education, but electrical wiring problems in the old building are currently limiting the wider use of computers and alternatives. 

The team also met for the first time with the 'difficult' physiology department, which was only possible due to the on-going collaboration with the pharmacology department. It was also discovered that the pathophysiology department had given up animal experiments since the last visit, again due to the successful collaboration with others, the great media interest generated in 2005, the availability of alternatives and of course the arguments that detail the pedagogical, economic and ethical advantages of alternatives. Another presentation was given to about 150 students and some teachers. 

The first InterNICHE Regional Meeting was held soon afterwards in Kyiv, with campaigners, collaborators and several new contacts from Belarus, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine present. The successful two day meeting, sponsored by the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research, was held in Russian and focused on the former Soviet countries. Time was spent sharing news, ideas and experiences, particularly discussing plans for developing InterNICHE activity across the region. A number of alternatives were demonstrated, and Prof Mykola Makarchuk, who wrote a Case Study in the book from Guinea Pig to Computer Mouse (2nd ed.), also visited and shared some thoughts on alternatives, implementation, and the new Ukrainian law that addresses animal experiments in education and conscientious objection. 

This law, No. 3447 - IV, 'On the Protection of Animals from Cruelty', signed by Viktor Yushchenko in February 2006, acknowledges the importance of humane education and states that experiments in education are only permissible when there are no alternatives. It forbids injury to or the death of an animal if it goes against a students' moral or religious beliefs, and states that in such cases alternatives must be provided. 

An increasing openness in Ukraine and Georgia following the revolutions is not reflected in the 'little dictatorship' of Belarus, nor in Russia. Indeed, Vladimir Putin has actively clamped down on NGOs. Ukrainian openness may also allow western pharmaceutical companies to move to the country, however, with a negative economic and animal welfare impact. 

In life science education in the Ukraine, the news is positive. The InterNICHE Humane Education Award is funding an alternative approach at the Zooveterinary Institute in Kharkiv which will directly replace veterinary surgery labs on live animals with an innovative cadaver-based alternative. Instead of catching and practicing on healthy stray dogs and cats which are then either killed or released with injuries, ethically sourced animal cadavers and Aboud's Method (4) of perfusing cadavers for 'live' surgery practice will be implemented. 

Students will therefore be offered fully ethical learning opportunities that provide a greater degree of freedom to achieve genuine mastery in surgical training through repeated and highly realistic practice. Syrian neurosurgeon Dr Emad Aboud will advise on the establishment of the model. This project reflects the impact of several years of 'attrition' on the animal experimentation orthodoxy through alternatives campaigning. With full consensus achieved from surgery teachers on the replacement, there is a high probability of a fully sustainable curricular transformation. 

In contrast, the progressive bioethics lessons introduced by biology teacher Anatoly Lukianov at Moscow State University have now been cancelled due to the negative impact of repeated ALF raids. The lessons had formerly been given at the beginning of the biology course and had reduced the number of animals used in experiments by students due to its success in sensitising them to ethical concerns. As the raids continued the lessons were moved to the end of the course, and the number of experiments therefore increased. The latest raid led to the full cancellation of the lessons, and despite the rescue of a small number of animals and the increased security costs to the university, the number of animals killed has again increased along with the negativity and rigidity of the university in relation to alternatives and change. 

There is a continuing interest in alternatives at many other institutes and with individual teachers. Other InterNICHE and VITA activity in Russia included a presentation and stall at the major 2006 Moscow Veterinary Congress, a press conference that announced the launch of the Russian version of the freeware Physiology Simulators CD, and visits by Anya Yushchenko to students and teachers in the city to discuss alternatives and the Ukrainian animal protection law. Throughout 2006, Anya is attending many Ukrainian academic conferences and distributing software and other material, with support from the RSPCA.

Public understanding about the issue of animal use in education is suggested by the reaction of people at a Moscow metro station when medical students in white coats tried recently to catch a number of stray dogs. Aware that they would be used for surgery practice or other experiments, several commuters protected the dogs and chased away the students. 

Although of an altogether different scale, the action of the commuters echoes the concerns of ordinary Londoners in the early 19th century who protested against vivisection performed in physiology education at University College. Protesters erected a statue to the 'Brown Dog' and to over 200 others used at the college, resulting in vandalism to the statue by furious medical students, skirmishes between the students and the general public, and a major court case. The broad public support for anti-vivisection reflected a growing awareness of injustice, and found common ground with the burgeoning women's and workers' movements of the time. 

Whether widespread grassroots action against injustice will develop in Russia remains to be seen, but the momentum for alternatives in education in Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere continues to grow, with many students, teachers and campaigners agreeing on the multiple positive impact of modern tools and approaches.


Nick Jukes
28 July 2006


References

(1) Jukes N. Ukraine and Russia: Major InterNICHE outreach, training in alternatives and replacement of animal experiments. ALTEX 2005/4. Also sent through the list interniche-l.

(2) News release - Wednesday 22nd February 2006. World's first Arabic alternatives website and video launched: www.interniche.org/ar. Available at www.interniche.org/arPR.htm

(3) Jukes N, Chiuia M, eds. From Guinea Pig to Computer Mouse: Alternative Methods for a Progressive, Humane Education, 2nd ed. Leicester, UK: InterNICHE, 2003. Also on-line at www.interniche.org/book/book_versions.html

(4) Aboud E. et al. New Alternative to Animal Models for Surgical Training. ATLA 32, Supplement 1, 501-507, 2004. See also Conference on-line. InterNICHE, 2005. www.interniche.org/2005conference/online.html


Appendix

Abbreviations used:

ALF (Animal Liberation Front)
IAAPEA (International Association Against Painful Experiments on Animals)
InterNICHE (International Network for Humane Education)
RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)
WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals)
VITA is the Center for Animal Rights Protection (www.vita.org.ru)