Student leader champions use of alternatives to lab animals

Posted by webmaster in News Articles      2 comments

Mar
2

Passive, subservient learning is characteristic of many students in many institutions of higher learning in Kenya. Questioning lecturers on content and challenging the existing modes of teaching is considered rude and disrespectful. Many students cower at a sharp glance or a strict word from a professor. Not so for Dennis Makau, a third year student in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Nairobi.

Jerry

Dennis fights for what he believes is right. He is never afraid to voice his opinion or challenge others into doing what is right. His strong qualities had him elected to be the Faculty Representative of the department of Veterinary Medicine at the university, just in his 2nd year.

His proactive nature, great love for animals and passion to care for them also got the twenty two year old aspiring veterinarian to join the Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW) during his first year. He worked as an intern for six months at the organization where he took part in humane education activities, de-snaring operations, community conservation education and attended various fora on animal welfare issues. The experience strengthened his dedication to fight for animals at the same time giving him the necessary foundation for his long desired career.

His urge to diversify his knowledge and understanding of animal welfare had him volunteer in Africa’s first ever Pan African Seminar on Alternatives to the use of animals in educational training and experiments organized by ANAW and the International Network for Humane Education (InterNICHE) in Kenya in September 2009. At this seminar, Dennis shared a platform with some of his University of Nairobi lecturers, where they were introduced to new technological resources available and already effectively in use in Universities elsewhere. He was very inquisitive. “I asked many questions because I wanted answers to many issues that bothered me regarding use of animals in research and experiments,” explained Dennis.

Student Leader

The 22 year old student leader continues to pursue concerns over the inhumane use of live animals in labs for experimentation in schools. “For very many decades animals have been used in the laboratory procedures for the trials of various drugs in drug development and mostly for teaching purposes. Since the inception of this method of teaching the education system in Kenya has been reluctant to change and adopt other methods. Right from primary school, pupils are meant to understand that in science we have to sacrifice a few for the betterment of the world.” He says.
As was discussed during the seminar, he had observed that the use of animals in training results in pain and in some cases death. He learnt of a solution to the problem. “Mannequins have been developed with the latest technology to mimic the exact characteristics of the live animals and these can be used over and over without suffering the problem of shortage due to inevitable trauma deaths and most of all inflicting pain to live animals.”
“Unlike in human medicine where cadavers are available for use during the training sessions minimizing injury to live people, this same perspective is largely lacking in the veterinary teaching system in this country.” He goes on to say that the only alternative left for the teaching staff is the use of live and at times normal healthy animals to demonstrate the different surgical procedure like eye enucleating or even claw removal usually to cows.
Among other inhumane processes are very invasive procedures like kidney and other organs extraction performed on fit animals. These processes usually terminate in mercy killing. Though the involved personnel tries to minimize the pain inflicted, it is not totally effective and thus the animal still suffers extreme trauma. If the procedure is not fatal, the animal is then left deformed or impaired e.g. without one eye or claw or any other deformity that it wasn’t born with. The animal is unable to cope with the sudden state it has been dealt with.
He has taken the lead in engaging lecturers over this during lectures. But no sooner the quarrel brews than the rude awakening comes that there can simply be no other way to learn than that. Though some of the students do not understand the position of their friends, such a small population of animal caring individuals is all that is needed to bring change in the teaching fraternity.
“Embracing the use of these new teaching aides will not only improve the performance of the students but also encourage more students to take up the course since the fear of witnessing or taking part in animal ‘torture’ and mistreatment puts off many potentially brilliant scientists.”
Dennis hopes to bring change to the way of teaching at the University. He hopes to fight tooth and nail for the welfare of these lab animals. “I personally do stand in support of use of the alternative methods of teaching in place of lab animal be it rats, mice, dogs or even equines used for training purposes. I thus urge the university management and student fraternity as well as the vets in other institutions to embrace this new way of life.”
Dennis concludes that while we are looking to come up with ways of combating the numerous diseases that are eradicating the human race, we should also in the process not eradicate various animal species. We should also accept change. “Looking in the same direction for so long does make the neck stiff and thus a few turns here and there keep us propelled in the right direction.”