Omar Kallel

English 1A: Book Review

Professor Ogbara
November 23, 2015

A Critical Review of Dissection Teaches Students Lessons in Cruelty

By People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
Introduction:
In Dissection Teaches Students Lessons in Cruelty, People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals (PETA), which is an organization that denounces the excessive cruelty and use of
animals in experimentation, tells us that animal dissection in biology is unethical and could be
avoided by implementing alternatives that would inform or teach students as much as cutting up
animals. This story, in the form of a well-structured article, begins by stating the damage that is
caused by biology class dissection on both animals and students, and then supports its argument
by proposing advanced alternatives that proved as efficient as supplying and using millions of
animals every year for the purpose of experimentation. In this paper, Ill be presenting the major
arguments of this article, and focus on the flaws that were not considered enough by PETA.

Summary:
This section includes a summary of Dissection Teaches Students Lessons in Cruelty. The
organization that wrote this article (PETA) starts its writing by a brief presentation of its
debatable topic, which not only criticizes the cruelty of dissecting animals and its impact on
students moral behavior, but also provides an example of an alternative to that practice in order

to prepare readers for development of ideas throughout the article. This Books article is divided
into four sections: the first is suppliers of animals, such as breeding facilities and other methods,
while providing evidence of animal abuse. The second one, compassion dies with the frog
discusses the loss of passion and virtue of life among students who are engaged in the practice of
dissection, and its effect on their behavior. The third part, which is students speak up, states the
unfair punishments imposed on students in different academic institutions who refuse and protest
against lab dissections in biology classes. The final step to finish this writing effectively is to
provide newly sophisticated alternatives to dissection to protect animals rights.

Authors Argument:
According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, their purpose for writing this
article is to denounce the practice of animal dissection by those who agree and consider it
as a fact of life (27) and learning. He opposes them by presenting series of arguments
and facts, which states classroom dissection is a cruel practice that students should
protest (27). He supports his main argument by providing examples of animal suppliers,
including the largest breeding facility and its savage treatment of animals. Besides, he
goes deeper in his explanation by bringing up examples of immoral behavior generated
into students actions, and also provides evidence of students who were punished and
even expelled from school as a result for their protest or denial of biology lab dissection.
At last, he makes a good impression by finishing up with several examples of alternatives
that proved more accurate and effective in learning than the practice of cutting open an
animals body.

Evaluation:

This section contains an evaluation of PETAs article. In a first approach, People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals fails to include a counterargument that would improve readers
trustworthiness in its argument and also convince its opponents to look back to their own beliefs
in this context and try to analyze and evaluate the validity of PETAs argument. In facts,
researchers, in his argument, appear as monsters, which take joy in making animals suffer,
without mentioning other examples, in which we view other researchers compassionate in their
treatment of animals and try to minimize their sufferings as much as they can.
The second weakness that Ive noticed throughout the reading is that the position held by
PETA creates a bias, which makes it difficult to be objective in the process of writing. In fact, he
includes an example of a student named Dahmer, who after attending a dissection during a
biology lab class, started enjoying the excitement and power he experienced when cutting up
animals and fantasized about cutting up a human body (29). This statement made me think
about the effectiveness of his example, because my father has been practicing medical surgery
his whole life, and Ive never seen or heard about him torturing animals or hurting people.

Conclusion:
This critical review evaluates the article Dissection Teaches Students Lessons in Cruelty by
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. This organization did a good job, providing
evidence that denounces the cruelty of animals dissection, and also mentioning the types and
numbers of creatures commonly used by educational institutions, the their suppliers, and the
best alternatives that make students learn efficiently without having to torture these poor
beings. However, PETA showed weaknesses in its writing by the absence of a
counterargument that would make his argument more accurate, and also the presence of bias.