Uncomfortable truths (Peech)

God, I love this blog! It’s so important to keep multiple lines of procrastination open.

Right now, I should be preparing for my super exploratory dissection prac for next week. It’s 6 hours (in lots of 3) and involves… well… you get a dog corpse and then cut it open to see if all the theory you’ve been shoving into your brain is correct. Apparently it’s quite revelatory, in a ‘Oh my god, I’ve been studying cat bodies instead of dogs!’ and ‘Hey, the stuff we are learning is actually pretty useful and applicable!’ kind of way. It’s scheduled quite early in the semester to see if, A). you’re cut out for cutting and B). you’re actually heading in the right direction with your study.

When you first meet second year vet students, they say that first year is ‘confronting’. You’re not quite sure what this is supposed to mean… until you step into the third level of the main building for the first time. Suddenly you’re surrounded by 1cm transections of sheep bodies and feeling lost and queasy. The queasiness continues into your first dissection, where you explore the amazing insides of real horses and cows and dogs. The smell is absolutely revolting (for the first three minutes, until your nose shuts down in protest) and the sight isn’t particularly nice either (…especially since you keep getting the sneaking suspicion that you may be somewhat similar on the inside).

Vets need to cut open real animals to practise their surgical techniques and acquaint themselves with animal anatomy. On the other hand, most people become vets because they love animals. They think they’re gorgeous and cuddly and like real people…. except /better/. This results in a kind of… nasty internal conflict, where you feel guilty, and excited, and a bit sad and fascinated all at once while you’re pulling away the skin of poor Fido. The use of real animals in teaching is a highly controversial issue, covered more thoroughly by far better writers than me. But it’s true that when you become a vet student, you have to reconcile your love of animals with the need to open them up. You have to think about whether you’re ready to do this, or if you feel able to put an animal down. Because it’s going to happen, eventually, and it’s not going to be fun.

(You’ll never be the first to faint in class.)