No more cats for doctor training practice, Cincinnati Children's says, after PETA pressure

Cincinnati Enquirer

Pressed by the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has stopped its 20-year tradition of training doctors to insert breathing tubes into the body using live cats.

A PETA statement said the group complained Jan. 24 to Cincinnati Children’s after a whistleblower reported that a cat named Biscuit died last year “after suffering an apparent anesthesia-induced stroke-like event that impaired blood flow to the brain, leading to destruction of brain tissue.”

The course involves training doctors to put breathing tubes into a patient’s lungs, an important function in hospital medicine. Doctors inserted bronchoscope cables into cats' mouths, down the windpipe then into the main trunk of the lungs.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said in a statement that it learned from a whistleblower that a course taught by a Cincinnati Children's Hospital doctor used live cats -- although not this one pictured -- to teach doctors how to insert breathing tubes. The hospital has said it will no longer use cats in that course.

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PETA’s statement said Dr. Robert E. Wood, a pulmonary specialist at Cincinnati Children’s, has taught the annual course in pediatric flexible bronchoscopy since about 1999 at Cincinnati Children’s and other facilities.

Ten to 15 cats were used every year, PETA said. Since and the course's inception, more than 2,200 doctors from more than 80 countries took the training. More than 370 cats were used over the 20 years, PETA said.

Shalin G. Gala, PETA’s vice president of international laboratory methods, outlined the group’s complaint in a Jan. 24 letter to Michael Fisher, president and chief executive officer of Cincinnati Children’s.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center was recently ranked third among the topic pediatric care centers in the nation.

“There is no medical or educational need to use cats or any animals to teach these human medical procedures effectively,” Gala wrote. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association, the Emergency Nurses Association, and the National Association of Neonatal Nurses use human simulators in training programs.

Cincinnati Children’s sent a response on Feb. 8 response from Dr. Margaret Hosteller, chairwoman of the pediatrics department. “I have discussed this matter with Dr. Wood, and he understands that he and any other physicians who may teach the pediatric flexible bronchoscopy postgraduate course in the future will no longer use animals. This prohibition has been communicated to Dr. Wood and his colleagues.”

The Madigan Army Medical Center in Wisconsin, the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and the Naval Medical Center San Diego ended the use of animals in pediatric intubation training drills after PETA complaints, PETA’s statement said.