Tsin'aen siguu (thank you very much) for your good words. It is our willful ignorance, particularly among scientists (of which I am one), that allows the continued use and misuse of animals for our research, food, and entertainment. If our culture(s) could practice, and teach from the youngest ages, humility and compassion, that we as humans are not meant to be overlords, but rather to be a part of a whole - how differently I imagine we would approach finding solutions, and how different the solutions themselves (to health and other research questions) would be!
I once found myself as the only science teacher at a small community college. Instead of "ordering fetal pigs", as the textbooks said, I asked students to bring in animals that they or people they knew hunted for food or fur. One student asked an Indigenous person to bring in a sea otter that had been legally hunted for fur. When we dissected it, we found ENORMOUS kidneys! This was completely new to me! It led to a discussion of why, and of how a sea mammal that needs freshwater processes seawater. While there can be discussions of whether or not it is "right" to hunt for food or fur, the experience did not harm any additional animals, and the Otter had at least lived it's life naturally with full social interactions. And those of us blessed with the Otter (who was returned to the Indigenous person) became more deeply connected to the place we were in and learned important science we would not have learned from the factory chain of fetal pigs.
What if, instead of dissection at all, our class material would let us learn from deep observation? Would that not also have served the purpose of learning biology -- and in a way that would connect students more closely to the place they lived, and instill in them a deep need to allow the un-built world to flourish?
Thank you for sharing that story. I do agree we need to ask better research questions, in general. We could also draw on Native Science from observations, like you suggest. Wouldn't it be amazing if classes would thank the animal that has to be dissected for giving the class knowledge about them? That changes perceptions about relationships with all living things around you. Thank you again, for your thoughtful comments.
Tsin'aen siguu (thank you very much) for your good words. It is our willful ignorance, particularly among scientists (of which I am one), that allows the continued use and misuse of animals for our research, food, and entertainment. If our culture(s) could practice, and teach from the youngest ages, humility and compassion, that we as humans are not meant to be overlords, but rather to be a part of a whole - how differently I imagine we would approach finding solutions, and how different the solutions themselves (to health and other research questions) would be!
I once found myself as the only science teacher at a small community college. Instead of "ordering fetal pigs", as the textbooks said, I asked students to bring in animals that they or people they knew hunted for food or fur. One student asked an Indigenous person to bring in a sea otter that had been legally hunted for fur. When we dissected it, we found ENORMOUS kidneys! This was completely new to me! It led to a discussion of why, and of how a sea mammal that needs freshwater processes seawater. While there can be discussions of whether or not it is "right" to hunt for food or fur, the experience did not harm any additional animals, and the Otter had at least lived it's life naturally with full social interactions. And those of us blessed with the Otter (who was returned to the Indigenous person) became more deeply connected to the place we were in and learned important science we would not have learned from the factory chain of fetal pigs.
What if, instead of dissection at all, our class material would let us learn from deep observation? Would that not also have served the purpose of learning biology -- and in a way that would connect students more closely to the place they lived, and instill in them a deep need to allow the un-built world to flourish?
Thank you for sharing that story. I do agree we need to ask better research questions, in general. We could also draw on Native Science from observations, like you suggest. Wouldn't it be amazing if classes would thank the animal that has to be dissected for giving the class knowledge about them? That changes perceptions about relationships with all living things around you. Thank you again, for your thoughtful comments.