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PROJECT ALTERNATIVES IN UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION |
 Project Background
As an animal welfare organisation we were aware of the many welfare problems associated with the use of animals in education. We were concerned that the use of animals in education seemed to be neglected by the Czech public and media. In comparison to the US for example, where public cases of high school students‘ protests against dissections in biology are quite frequent, this topic in the Czech Republic was in the background. We were also concerned about the lack of publicly accessible information. The project „Alternatives in Undergraduate Education“ therefore arose from representatives of Společnost pro zvířata wanting to know the situation at universities (animal experiments are done only rarely at high schools), and whether or not this lack of concern of the public and media was justified. As a representative of the international network for humane education, InterNICHE, the organisation had good preconditions for it, and on the basis of previous activities also good informational background.
In autumn 2001, we met at conference in Poland with representatives of the RSPCA, and discussed together activities of our organisation. The RSPCA was interested in our activities within the alternatives in education, and since they had good cooperation experience with InterNICHE in many projects, they suggested some specific project about the issue could be carried out in the Czech Republic. Because we wanted to start an intensive campaign on the use of alternatives in education for many years, but did not have resources, we greatly welcomed this offer. Since then we prepared a proposal of project, which was approved by the RSPCA in spring 2002.
Besides the economic situation, the integration of alternatives into education and minimisation of animal experimentation was influenced by teachers‘ or faculty’s administration‘s approach, and by students‘ opinions. Another factor was the introduction of influences from abroad, which started to filter through here after revolution. Interest in this issue has existed here since the first half of 1990’s, but still, there was not much information available.
Adoption of animal protection legislation in 1992 was also an impetus for the establishment of ethical committees at single faculties, which were called to review validity of experiments on animals, and to ensure that there is no animal maltreatment.
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