Animal Experimentation Alternatives Library

Biology professors at the university level in Israel continue to use live animals in their classes. Please help us replace the use of animals with a lending library of computer programs, laptop computers that can be used to demonstrate them, plastic models, and other alternatives.

For example, in cardiovascular physiology labs, to demonstrate the effects of certain neurotransmitters on the vertebrate's heart, anesthetized frogs are commonly dissected to reveal the heart and its surroundings. Then students are required to drip different solutions on the frog's heart and watch their effects on heart rate and other parameters.

When the students dissect the frogs and conduct experimentation, errors frequently occur, rendering whole demonstration useless, and leading to yet another frog being used to demonstrate the expected, well-known outcome.

Sophisticated, computer-based alternatives like "The Virtual Heart," "Contraction Mechanisms in the Frog Heart," and "Interactive Physiology" have successfully replaced the use of animals in this kind of demonstrations throughout the world and even in Israel (at the Tel Aviv University's Medical School, for instance). The new lending alternatives library will offer these and other advanced teaching tools.