Classroom Cut Ups: A Look At Dissection

**WARNING! CONTAINS GRAPHIC FOOTAGE OF ANIMALS BEING GASSED AND PROCESSED!**

An anti-dissection film by PETA. It was available on VHS tapes.

## Synopsis:

A video against dissection that shows investigations done at Carolina Biological and Ward's Natural Science. Discusses alternatives and arguments against dissection.

Background on school dissection practices, brought to light by PETA's undercover investigation of Carolina Biological Supply Co. and Ward's Natural Science. Cats arriving at C.B.S. in Burlington and killed on the premises. Casual cruelties in the preparation for specimens that are sent out to the schools.

The introduction of the film consists of teenagers giving their arguments against dissecting animals. The film shows the shelters and pounds where the cat and dogs used in dissection come from. It then shows the animals being put into gas chambers and gassed, one of the biological supply companies has gas chambers outside of the building where the animals are placed after they arrive. Footage is then shown of gassed cats being pumped with formaldehyde and rats hooked up to formaldehyde stations. The teenagers shown at the beginning and the end of the film may either be PETA members or the children of PETA employees.

## Segments:

1. THE INVESTIGATION:

The director of investigations at PETA tells how they were informed of the biological supply companies and the supposed cruelties that occurred there. We are then show the alledged violations that occured at these companies.

2. WHERE DO THE ANIMALS COME FROM?:

The film says that the dogs that the biological supply companies use come from poorly run shelters and pounds. A PETA investigator tells of two cases where a gassed dog was brought to the company that was
still alive and had survived the gassings. Cats used are said to
have been snatched from people's front yards. A local resident
claims that the Wises go around towns and pick up cats. The
cattery where the missing cats ends up is filmed showing a
dead cat and cats in bad conditions.

3. WARD'S BIOLOGY:

Cat dealer John Wise is shown putting cats into
a black gas chamber at the back entrance to Ward's Biology. Gassed cats are then shown spread out on the floor inside the building "in squalid conditions".

4. CAROLINA BIOLOGICAL:

Carolina Biological vice president Ray Flagg is asked at a convention about where they get their cats. At the company, cats are shown being goaded into cages which are then put into a gas chamber. A concealed camera supposedly shows cats being hooked up to tubes that pump formaldehyde in their bodies while they are still alive. Rats are then shown hooked up to formaldehyde stations while supposedly still alive.

5. ATTITUDES:

A worker is supposedly shown spitting on a rat hooked up to a
formaldehyde station. Live crabs are shown being injected with formaldehyde. A worker is filmed playing around with a dead dog half submerged in a barrel. The PETA investigator tells of how he witnessed a worker drowning a live rabbit.

6. FROG DEPLETION:

The narrator says that there are other drawbacks to dissection
and then tells how India, a former main supplier of frogs for dissection,
 suffered an increase in mosquitoes when all of the frogs were removed, especially mosquitoes that carried malaria.

7. TOXINS:

The investigator tells of how workers would dump barrels of toxic
chemicals into the ground. The narrator says that it is not known what the long term effects of inhaling formaldehyde fumes during classroom dissections are.

8. ALTERNATIVES:

An advanced placement biology teacher tells why he doesn't allow dissection in his classes. Computer software that simulates the dissection of frogs is demonstrated. The film says that actual dissection is expensive. The narrator then says that many countries have outlawed dissections in schools below the university level.

Content Advisory: Contains graphic scenes of cats and dogs being gassed and dead animals being processed for dissection. Also contains graphic descriptions of animals being abused and killed. Shows supposedly live rats being hooked up to formaldehyde tubes. Shows sick and dead cats in cages.

Trivia: It was updated in 2004 using the same footage, but more modern software alternatives are discussed and it has a different narrator. The second edition of the original has a different outro where there is a woman (probably a PETA employee) with a dog wearing a PETA shirt that tells the viewer the numbers to call for more information and then says "Learn about your right not to dissect animals."