Conflicted about gross anatomy video posted to YouTube:

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mekia02

Tuskegee SVM c/o 2012
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Hi, I have been lurking around SDN for a while, but I have to post. I have been accepted into a vet school for the fall. Through the vet student formum for the school there was a message from a now 1st year welcoming the class of 2012 and directing us to a video that she posted on you tube about 1st year anatomy. I clicked the link and it is a video, still shots on a slideshow set to the drowning pool song "let the bodies hit the floor". It shows the storage cooler full of cadaver dogs, it shows the horse cadavers hanging from the ceiling, it shows a vet student posing with the skinned head of a dog (holding the dog head up to her head). It showed some nice group shots of the class and a few ok, ( appropriate shots of students at the disection table dissecting).

Coming from lab animal field and definitely I will be specializing in lab animal, I know the response that that video can cause if PETA were to get their hands on it. I think the pics of the cadaver cooler are for shock value and serve no other purpose. And some of the pictures look less than respectful, posing and smiling with the animal heads. BTW PETA has infiltrated the school in the past.

I feel like the student has acted irresponsible in regards to their maturity level, the cadavers are not there for us to play with. Also it has the ability to hurt the school image, and yes in the more info link under the posters screen name the student gives the schools NAME!

This is exactly the type of video that PETA likes to send around saying " look at this place abusing animals, let's protest them."

I posted a comment to the video on you tube briefly stating the same that I have stated here, however now I wish I had not done that since my screen name is not that far from my name. I think I should have anonymously emailed the comment to the person or posted it to the vet school forum anonymously. I hate that the video is up but I don't want to put myself in a situation coming in as a 1st yr and making a fuss about the actions of a 2nd yr that I think are inappropriate, and I know they violate the vet school rules about taking pictures.

Any advise?

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I wasn't aware the PETA spends a lot of time going after people over their 'abuse' of dead animals, especially in terms of dissection or how they exist in the cooler. How would they construe smiling next to your cow's cut off head as abuse? PETA has actually advocated that those schools that currently use terminal surgeries switch to computer based or cadavers.

As for other issues, if you're really upset, say something. Although I'm all for respecting the cadavers and students being appropriate with respect to posting pictures (as in... don't do it), it's different when you're actually taking out 60 lbs of horse intestines, or when you spill 5 gallons of bloody formaldehyde all over the floor and your feet. It's funny and ridiculous, because did you ever imagine yourself doing that?
 
Interesting. I did a quick YouTube search and found the video. Since I was in lecture, I played it silently the first time and didn't think it was too bad--smiling faces, etc. However, the soundtrack made it much worse, somehow. I'm sure some psychologist has written a thesis on something like that!

Anyways, I would be hesitant in showing it to people outside of the veterinary profession. Not all of our clients would understand grinning as we took a hacksaw to a cadaver--heck, not all clients understand "how we can possibly be vets," period.

I don't know terribly much about PETA, but from what I DO know, I think they'd be pissed. They're not exactly the most logical people. I mean, we had to ban anyone but our official photographer from taking pictures at our Open House, for god's sake.

Bottom line: I think you're right to be upset/worried. Perhaps a respectful email to the Dean with the link, just informing him that this is out there and leaving it in his hands. Just my $0.02...
 
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I found the video too - and I agree that the images aren't anything unusual. If it weren't for the soundtrack, which is a heavy-metal song that seems to be celebrating the bodies as corpses, instead of teaching tools... It's a gross song and makes the video, which should be about education, into some sort of morbid death thing. I agree that it makes me uncomfortable. I think a respectful email to some kind of authority figure might not be a bad idea.
 
a heavy-metal song that seems to be celebrating the bodies as corpses, instead of teaching tools... It's a gross song and makes the video, which should be about education, into some sort of morbid death thing.

hoodle, you articulated perfectly what I felt when watching the video with audio. :) Thanks for being so eloquent!
 
I would be concerned if I were you. We are not allowed to take pictures in our labs because of that reason. You are right in that PETA would have a hay day... even if the animals were already dead. I would say something, perhaps in confidence, to a professor or someone you feel comfortable with.
Congrats on vet school, btw!
 
I agree as well. It's inappropriate and unprofessional to post such a video on a public forum. I suspect your school administrators would be none too pleased about it. The student that posted it needs a priority check.

And by "priority check" I mean "a kick in the behind."
 
This reminds me of the thread awhile back about students posting facebook pictures of the anatomy lab. At some, maybe most, this is strictly forbidden on the basis of professionalism and public opinion (let along groups like PETA). As I stated in that thread - it really is inappropriate to have vet students doing that. We aren't allowed to take any pictures in lab (even for educational/studying purposes) in order to avoid conflicts like this.
 
The video has been removed (if it was the one I was trying to access).
 
Hi, I have been lurking around SDN for a while, but I have to post. I have been accepted into a vet school for the fall. Through the vet student formum for the school there was a message from a now 1st year welcoming the class of 2012 and directing us to a video that she posted on you tube about 1st year anatomy. I clicked the link and it is a video, still shots on a slideshow set to the drowning pool song "let the bodies hit the floor". It shows the storage cooler full of cadaver dogs, it shows the horse cadavers hanging from the ceiling, it shows a vet student posing with the skinned head of a dog (holding the dog head up to her head). It showed some nice group shots of the class and a few ok, ( appropriate shots of students at the disection table dissecting).

Coming from lab animal field and definitely I will be specializing in lab animal, I know the response that that video can cause if PETA were to get their hands on it. I think the pics of the cadaver cooler are for shock value and serve no other purpose. And some of the pictures look less than respectful, posing and smiling with the animal heads. BTW PETA has infiltrated the school in the past.

I feel like the student has acted irresponsible in regards to their maturity level, the cadavers are not there for us to play with. Also it has the ability to hurt the school image, and yes in the more info link under the posters screen name the student gives the schools NAME!

This is exactly the type of video that PETA likes to send around saying " look at this place abusing animals, let's protest them."

I posted a comment to the video on you tube briefly stating the same that I have stated here, however now I wish I had not done that since my screen name is not that far from my name. I think I should have anonymously emailed the comment to the person or posted it to the vet school forum anonymously. I hate that the video is up but I don't want to put myself in a situation coming in as a 1st yr and making a fuss about the actions of a 2nd yr that I think are inappropriate, and I know they violate the vet school rules about taking pictures.

Any advise?
Mekia02:
Tried to view it, but the user removed it. Case sorta closed. If the video was unprofessional, then the student(s) who made it should be subjected to discipline. They told us when we took the tour that pictures were off limits for exactly that reason.
 
Obviously, I think it was inappropriate, but can someone explain to me why PETA would get upset or the logic behind not being able to take pictures at open house? I honestly don't get it. I understand they're generally illogical, but what's the basis?
 
I'd say that video, though I have not seen it, seems to be in pretty poor taste due to the "soundtrack:" which someone probably thought was cute and/or clever. I think it's different than posting facebook pictures of lab though, which I don't have a problem with as long as they are done in good taste/respectfully......that is, the difference between "hey look what we're doing, isn't it neat, isn't anatomy interesting?" "and OMG look @ what we're doing isn't it gross and isn't this a funny song LOLZ";)
 
Obviously, I think it was inappropriate, but can someone explain to me why PETA would get upset or the logic behind not being able to take pictures at open house? I honestly don't get it. I understand they're generally illogical, but what's the basis?

It comes down to the very basic animal rights thing. Playing around with animal cadavers is viewed exactly the same as playing around with human cadavers. i.e., it's seen (I'm not saying rightly or wrongly) by animal rights activists as blatantly disrespectful. Just like you wouldn't want someone holding up your Aunt Jane's decapitated head and smiling at the camera, they don't think you should be doing that with a dog/horse/cow/etc.

And this feeds into the whole "vets are evil and want to torture animals" thing. We saw a magazine cover of PETA's magazine (? or was it "Time"? Can't remember) where the head of PETA said that she hopes--HOPES--that foot and mouth disease comes to the US. And this is knowing what tremendous suffering, death and devastation this would cause to the poor animals. (Most contagious disease in the world.) They just want to champion their cause.

Crazy bastards, but there you go. They have a way of twisting everything around.
 
Obviously, I think it was inappropriate, but can someone explain to me why PETA would get upset or the logic behind not being able to take pictures at open house? I honestly don't get it. I understand they're generally illogical, but what's the basis?

To clarify:

When touring (during interview time-not open house), we were told that taking pictures of the anatomy lab (that included dissection animals in freezers) was prohibited because at some time in the past, a prospective student (who later decided not to attend due to the practice of terminal surgeries) took photos and sent them to some "PETA-like" organization and raised a ruckus.

Some people are nutty.
 
And this feeds into the whole "vets are evil and want to torture animals" thing. We saw a magazine cover of PETA's magazine (? or was it "Time"? Can't remember) where the head of PETA said that she hopes--HOPES--that foot and mouth disease comes to the US. And this is knowing what tremendous suffering, death and devastation this would cause to the poor animals. (Most contagious disease in the world.) They just want to champion their cause.

That is just plain sickening...
 
The images of students playing with the cadavers is seen as indifferent, and animal rights people basically equate the same value of human life and death to animal life and death and just as it would be horrible/perverse/sociopath-like for a person to "play" with human bodies in a morgue animal rights people think the same goes for animals. So they would use a video like that to further one of their causes which seems lately to be to attack veterinary schools. Like loo said, and I mentioned in the original post PETA has already infiltrated the school once and caused problems. Now here is , or was, a new video which they might think justifies their beliefs.

Also like one other poster said the music made it worse, a song that seems to glorify violence and death seems contrary to what veterinary students are about.

Update: the poster did take it down. She sent a response to the student forum saying that it was originally only to be up for 24 hrs, but due to requests for it to stay up she left it. It had been up since April 25th. She said her reason for taking it down was that the crazies where starting to comment. However she also offered to pass it around to any students if they wanted it in a hardcopy. I was disappointed that she did not seem to understand what was wrong with her putting it up in a public place in the 1st place.
 
It comes down to the very basic animal rights thing. Playing around with animal cadavers is viewed exactly the same as playing around with human cadavers. i.e., it's seen (I'm not saying rightly or wrongly) by animal rights activists as blatantly disrespectful. Just like you wouldn't want someone holding up your Aunt Jane's decapitated head and smiling at the camera, they don't think you should be doing that with a dog/horse/cow/etc.

Yes, this.

Imagine a video of premed students posing with human cadavers in a similar manner set to the same music. Imagine the outrage that would ensue.

It's not a matter of PETA being a bunch of bat**** insane wackos (because they are), but rather a matter of future doctors treating the bodies of ones who could be their future patients in a disrespectful manner.

I think that anyone who can't treat a body in an anatomy lab with the utmost respect (whether that body is human or otherwise) needs to reconsider his/her career choice.

And I for one would never take a "kid" of mine to a vet that I'd seen holding up a severed animal head and grinning into the camera on YouTube.

YMMV, of course.
 
:rolleyes:hmm...seeing this thread makes me realise how glad i am when i set my facebook profile to restricted....
 
Yes, this.


It's not a matter of PETA being a bunch of bat**** insane wackos (because they are), but rather a matter of future doctors treating the bodies of ones who could be their future patients in a disrespectful manner.

I think that anyone who can't treat a body in an anatomy lab with the utmost respect (whether that body is human or otherwise) needs to reconsider his/her career choice.


I wish more people would say things like this....I for one think it's really sad that they don't:(.
 
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