After being pressured from a campaign against the use of ferrets
in pediatrics training, the University of Washington has now
said that it has replaced the use of ferrets with human-based
medical simulators to teach future pediatricians. This change is
the result of a campaign by the Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine (PCRM), with work on the ground by the
Seattle Animal Defense League (SADL), as well as support by
members of other local animal advocacy groups and activists, and
the willingness of UW to adopt current best practices. This
could not have been done without the tens of thousands of
supporters from PCRM, SADL, the Northwest Animal Rights Network
(NARN) , and others who flooded UW administrators with e-mails
and written petitions over the past year encouraging the school
to take this progressive step. And UW finally listened! A UW
spokesperson stated that instead of ferrets “tetherless
simulators are being employed at the point-of-care at the
bedside to simulate resuscitations and enhanc