Print this page / Imprima esta página
December 2003 News
InterNICHE Announces Humane Education Awardees
December 23, 2003
InterNICHE, the International Network for Humane Education, has announced the successful applicants for its 2003 Humane Education Award (Part I).
InterNICHE, with funding from the Dutch anti-vivisection organization Proefdiervrij, offered this year's award to university teachers in India. The award provides a total of 10 lakh Rupees (20,000 Euro, U.S. $23,000) to initiatives aimed at enhancing life science education and replacing harmful animal use. Further details of the award can be found at the InterNICHE web site at http://www.interniche.org (see "News").
The award is made available in two parts. Four applicants will receive financial support for Part I. These awardees and their projects are described below. The recipients of Part II of the award will be announced in 2004.
Dr. R. Raveendran, chief editor of the Indian Journal of Pharmacology and teacher from the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Pondicherry, will produce a freeware compilation CD of pharmacology simulations of animal experiments. More than 1,900 copies of the CD will be distributed free via the Journaldirectly to pharmacology teachers and others. The compilation will include the existing freeware alternatives ExPharm T1.00, Heart E1.00, Microlabs, Strathclyde Pharmacology Simulations, and Pharmatutor.
A lack of educational software packages has been identified as a barrier to implementation of alternatives within pharmacology teaching in India. Western alternatives are rarely distributed in India or are too expensive for most university departments to buy. Distribution of this CD will support practical changes in the curriculum based on a growing awareness of the potential of computer-assisted learning (CAL). It also will facilitate the replacement of many severe procedures performed on animals in over 800 institutes across the country.
Dr. R. Moses Inbaraj from the Department of Zoology at Madras Christian College will produce a freeware CD-ROM of a range of zoology dissections for ordinary degree and Master's students. Each of the animal cadavers used to produce the alternatives will be ethically-sourced, i.e., the animals will have died naturally or been euthanized secondary to terminal illness or serious non- recoverable injury.
In recent years, an estimated 1 million or more animals (100,000 from each of more than 10 species) have been killed annually for zoology dissections in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu alone. Economic and legislative considerations already have reduced this total and the number of species studied, but as a result some students are not participating in as much practical work. This freeware CD-ROM will help re-establish a broader range of practical classes in zoology and directly replace many of the dissections of killed animals at Madras Christian College and across the rest of India.
Dr. P. V. S. Kishore from the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Histology at NTR College of Veterinary Science in Gannavaram will produce a digital video, CD-ROM and DVD of buffalo calf dissection. The cadaver will be ethically-sourced, and the department will be supported further through the purchase of more than 20 existing alternatives in veterinary anatomy, including software, videos and models.
The alternatives to be produced and implemented will complement on-going reduction of harmful animal use in the Department and encourage the replacement of buffalo calf dissections at many other institutes. New Indian government recommendations currently are reducing the number of buffalo calves killed annually for veterinary anatomy dissections from several thousand to around 800. The funding of new alternatives will further reduce this total and enhance the teaching of veterinary anatomy.
Professor P. Hak, Dr. S. Bagchi and Dr. D. Chakrabarty from the Department of Physiology at Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences and Hospital in Jammu will be provided with a number of cardiac and neuromuscular physiology alternatives to support replacement of animal experiments in the Department.