JUNE 2006 NEWS

"From Guinea Pig to Computer Mouse" text available in 8 more languages

From the InterNICHE website:

Texts from the InterNICHE book 'from Guinea Pig to Computer Mouse' (2nd ed.) are launched on-line today in Arabic, French, German, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

The book is targeted at teachers and students of medicine, veterinary medicine and biology, and at ethics committees and animal protection groups.

Each translation begins with a highly detailed introduction to different types of alternative to harmful animal use in education such as multimedia software and virtual reality, training mannekins and simulators, ethically-sourced animal cadavers, student self- experimentation and clinical work with animal patients.

A number of translations include all chapters from Part A of the book:

  1. Types of alternative and their pedagogical impact
  2. The broader impact of humane education
  3. Assessment of alternatives in education (by Dr Jonathan Balcombe)
  4. Curricular design: Choosing and planning a humane approach to life science education (by Dr Lara Marie Rasmussen)
  5. Conscientious objection: Roles and responsibilities for teachers and students
  6. InterNICHE: Philosophy and practice

Other translations include case studies of implementation from Part B of the book, written by university heads of department and deans who have fully replaced harmful animal use in education:

  1. Virtual versus real laboratories in life science education: Concepts and experiences (by Dr Hans A. Braun)
  2. Implementation of computer-based alternatives in biomedical education (by Dr Henk van Wilgenburg)
  3. Teaching physiology is possible without killing (by Dr Mykola Makarchuk)
  4. Research project practicals for undergraduates in the biological sciences: Learning problem-solving strategies without animal experimentation (by Dr Garry C. Scroop)
  5. Client donation program to meet the needs of veterinary medical education: Alternatives to healthy animal sacrifice (by Dr Amarendhra M. Kumar)
  6. Ethical surgery training for veterinary students (by Dr Daniel D. Smeak)
  7. A pedagogically sound, innovative, and humane plan for veterinary medical education (by Drs Lara Marie Rasmussen, R. Ashley Robinson, Gary R. Johnston and Shirley D. Johnston)

The translation of the 520-page book has been made possible thanks to generous support from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), with additional support from the Swiss League Against Vivisection (LSCV) and the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Foundation.

Sponsors of the original English version can be found on the InterNICHE website.

Some of these texts are already available on-line in Hindi and Malayalam, thanks to support from the International Association Against Painful Experiments on Animals (IAAPEA).

Other languages under production include Bengali, Gujarati, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese (standard), Punjabi and Urdu.

For the texts launched today, InterNICHE acknowledges the excellent work of the translators:

The new texts make available the first or most comprehensive information resource on alternatives in education for many of the above languages. Further texts in each language will be added over time. CD and DVD versions of the book are also under production.

For more information, please contact Nick Jukes, InterNICHE Co-ordinator at coordinator@interniche.org or tel +44 116 210 9652.

You can visit the InterNICHE website for more information by clicking here.

(1) Nick Jukes & Mihnea Chiuia. from Guinea Pig to Computer Mouse: Alternative methods for a progressive, humane education (2nd edition) (InterNICHE, 2003). ISBN 1-904422-00-4. Foreword by Gill Langley, PhD.