I have to skin a CAT!

[ravencreek]

Ok I can already for see hate mail coming my way but here is my story about skinnin' cats.

When I was a child and into my teens I used to go around with my grandfather(the chicken farmer) and we would collect "stray" cats. That meaning that if they weren't in your barn or on your porch they were fair game. We would collect the cats, break their necks, gut and skin them and turn them into banjos. Now back then I didn't think about cats as pets since we didn't actually have pets. Every animal had a job and if it didn't do its job it was "relieved" of its duties. Cats weren't allowed on the farm cause they killed the chicks in the chicken houses. So we used them to make some extra money. Sorry if this offends anyone. I had a very strange childhood.

 

[abluechipstock]

oh my to the banjo making, how do you think they got the suture material "cat gut" from, anyway when i was in A & P they got the cats from mexico, they were strays, my cat was a gray and white, i had an awesome teacher that only made us get the cats out 3 times while the other one had it out all the time, we were going to be working on people not cats in my opinion

 

[deb1]

I don't know if this helps anyone or not....The cat that we dissected in high school was not bloody at all. It really isn't as gross as many people think.

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

been there. Done that.

In HS, since it was an Aggie. We dissected nearly everything.
The worse was going to the slaughter house for horse legs. Being a animal lover with a special affinity towards horses that was rough.
But I learned SO MUCH. Granted i have learned so much more since then. But the basics have helped me and my horses thru the years

 

[theOEGBman]

Rhett&SarahsMom :

been there. Done that.

In HS, since it was an Aggie. We dissected nearly everything.
The worse was going to the slaughter house for horse legs. Being a animal lover with a special affinity towards horses that was rough.
But I learned SO MUCH. Granted i have learned so much more since then. But the basics have helped me and my horses thru the years

Now that would be difficult. I eat chicken and pheasant, so dissecting them didnt bother me at all, but a horse, even a horse leg, that would be rough.​

 

[rooster0209]

All of this is exactly why I am not in the medical field and changed my mind about becoming a vet. Skinning a cat has nothing to do with being a nurse, sorry this is just my opinion! Not all cats that make it to the "science" lab are there by honest terms. Some people collect cats they find and sell them to research centers. When the cats are "done" at the centers they are turned over to schools.

This is an archaeic practice that should be done away with

 

[Robin'sBrood]

I had to dissect a cat once

, but I was enrolled in a veterinary medical technology program at a community college. With that I can see the benefit, but doing it for a human nursing class...?

 

[AussieSharon]

So glad when I went to LPN school in Austraila we didn't have to do anything like that.

I know for my son in school you can sign a waiver that they not do disections and can do a "computer disection" instead and it does not affect their grades.

Good luck!

 

[PortageGirl]

If someone can't divorce themselves from the thought of doing what needs to be done to an animal that is already dead, how are people going to be able to do procedures on live people.

As has been mentioned, all mammal organs and tissue are very similar, and while I dislike the thought of any of it, when needs must, you do what you need to.

Walking out of a high school biology class with an ‘F’ is very different from refusing to do something that will prevent you from getting a degree in a field you wish to earn your livelihood from. A field I might add that provides a lot of good for the rest of the human race.

Maybe I sound sort of hard hearted, maybe sometimes I am. I love my pets, I take very good care of them and the livestock I have and have had, but I do what needs to be done.

I appreciate my doctors and respect and admire the nurses I’ve dealt with both in respect to my own needs and the needs of my family. If the human doctors and nurses have had to start on small mammals, then I admire them for being able to continue on to the cadavers that were reserved for only those who have proven they have the courage and determination to get that far.

My parents both willed their remains to the Cleveland Clinic Medical School, and I’m doing the same. But I’d hate for that to be an effort wasted on students who couldn’t get past a cat corpse.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
I thank your parents for giving students like myself, the opportunity to study the human body in their course of study.