Approximately 10 million animals are used for crude classroom dissection exercises annually in the U.S. PETA’s investigations into biological supply companies, which sell animal bodies and parts, have uncovered acts of cruelty to animals, including the drowning of rabbits and the embalming of cats while they were still alive.
Biological supply houses breed animals such as mice, rats, and rabbits; obtain fetal pigs from slaughterhouses that cut them from their mothers’ bodies after their mothers are killed; and trap or take other types of animals from a variety of locations.
For example, millions of frogs are captured in their natural habitats every year for dissection and experimentation, and the U.S. Department of the Interior has even stated that amphibian population declines are due in part to the use of these animals in dissection. Other animals, such as the cats commonly dissected in biology courses, are obtained from animal shelters, pet stores, backyards, and the streets of the U.S. and Mexico.