Unfortunately if you want to be a vet, you will be required to do this in college as well. In order to be a vet (just like if you wanted to be a human doctor) you must understand how the internal functions of the animals bodies work. As a veterinary you have to operate and it would not be helpful to operate on a live animal if you do not know what you are doing. It might be beneficial for you to visit a vet and ask them what types of college courses you would need to take since this is an 8 year degree.

I understand where you are coming from. You want to help animals and you don't think that killing animals just so they can be used for science is a good thing. Obviously you are going to have to preform surgeries and stuff when you are a vet so the practice will come in handy, but I think you don't want to support what your school is doing. The thing is you are gonna have to practice on animals who's lives were donated for science in order to help animals later on. If you want to be a vet I think you should. Or you can take a stand and write an essay instead, but you won't be able to help any animals later on as a vet.

If you want to be a veterinarian you'll need to learn where everything is or you're going to kill a lot of pets.

They're not asking you to EAT the danmed thing, just to dissect it! Sheesh!

Why waste 8 years of Vet school only to find out you can't make the cut?(pun intended)

Doctors do autopsies on human bodies all the time, and they are not murderers. It's already dead, and it's not like you are affecting the demand for dead fetal pigs. They are going to be available anyway so long as we have a pork industry. The benefit of you being a vet far outweighs the almost zero ethical cost of a fetal pig.

In vet school you will be doing TONS of anatomy and along with that comes dissecting a LOT of animals. If you are not willing to do 1 animal in HS, you won't make it in vet school. so you decide

Good luck on wanting to be a vet and getting through 8 years college and veterinary school without ever having to dissect an animal and getting first hand knowledge of the internal workings of animals.

Well, as a vet you won't have to dissect an animal for autopsy... but you do have to know where everything is located LOL Seriously, you need to decide what you want first... vet tech, surgeon, or general. Either way, I don't think you're going to get away from seeing this eventually and it will probably do you better now, then to be thrown into it in college and being the only one who hasn't done it. If it bothers you that much at the time you go to do it, then maybe you should consider alternatives... and possibly a different profession as well. (sorry)

I became a veg because I hated the look and sight of ooky bloody flesh, even on cooking shows, even though I had previously considered medicine. Plus I didn't like the thought of the suffering, just to be on my plate, but really the visceral reaction, when I started cooking, was what turned me off. In HS, we did the pigs, (worms also, first) and I chose a partner (we worked in pairs) for those expts who would do all the cutting, and I did the writing and drawing. I wish now I had gotten over myself then, (even though, 20 years later, I still don't cook meat) because I wish I was a doctor sometimes, along with one of my long-time good friends. I am finally over the issue of dealing with muscle/flesh, from dealing with my own wounds and friends' emergencies, (we're a klutzy bunch, and I have discovered I am really good in an emergency) and feel I could do all the autopsies and dissections that med school requires, now (my doctor friend says 'it's never too late' but at 45 I think it is...I've heard they don't admit people to dentistry school over 40). I agree with the others - confront this now and make your peace with the issue one way or the other, rather than putting it off and having regrets or second thoughts later.

As you are in high school, you are correct that there are alternatives to dissection that the school is REQUIRED to accept! I fully understand your ethical concerns. You have numerous resources available to you. AAVS, NAVS, and even possibly PCRM. I don't remember if it is AAVS, or NAVS that offers free dissection alternative kits. Yes, it is amazing that this day in age a high school would require animal dissection. You have to remember that most of the population exists on a lower level of animal ethics, and things such as this tend to go right over their heads. Breeding animals for experimentation is big business, and they control many politicians! The general population was brought up to think a certain way, and it is easier to just accept it as the norm that animal's lives are no big deal - they chow down on them, and enjoy it! I'm not sure of how much dissection is required for becoming a vet (probably quite a bit), but I'm sure live experimentation has been reduced as the educational community slowly evolves. I know that PCRM has basically eliminated live animal labs in all but four or five medical schools in the whole country which is great! You should probably talk to a recent vet school grad. The world thanks you for making it a better place to live for all of us! Let us know whatever you find out.

If you want to be a vet, you will have to dissect animals. In fact, once you're qualified, you will probably have to put some of them down. Just to warn you...