CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — A doctors group has filed a complaint against the emergency medicine training program at the UNC School of Medicine, saying the program violates federal law by using live animals.
The complaint, filed by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says the program instructs trainees to cut into various parts of a pig to insert needles and tubes, and to spread the ribs to access the heart. After the training session, the animals are killed.
Dr. John Pippin, the committee’s director of academic affairs, said documents obtained from the university acknowledge that available human-based training methods could achieve training goals.
A school spokesman didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment Friday, and officials at the program couldn’t be reached for comment.