Your Teacher Lied: Birds Drowned, Turtles Reportedly Frozen Alive for Dissection

Every school year, millions of animals are cut apart in classroom dissection. Most students would refuse to take part in this cruel, archaic practice if they knew the disturbing truth about the suffering animals used for dissection endure.

Despite what your teachers may have told you, these animals do NOT die of old age or natural causes—many suffer and are killed specifically for dissection:

• Pigeons are packed into crates and drowned in tubs of water.

• Turtles reportedly come “back to life” and are then frozen to death.

• Crayfish are injected with liquid latex while they’re still breathing.

• Live rabbits were put into a “machine,” according to one worker.

This sounds like a horror movie, but at Bio Corporation—an Alexandria, Minnesota, company that sells dead animals to school districts in the U.S.—it’s apparently business as usual. An eyewitness went behind the scenes, and the findings will shock you.

We’ll Never Get This Image out of Our Head
Cat collars were seen dangling—morbid reminders of cats who might have been people’s lost companions.

In the dissection industry, cats are purchased from shelters for a few dollars each. Some of them were wearing collars when they arrived at Bio Corporation. Workers hung up the collars in a morbid display of all that remained of animals who could have been someone’s cherished family member.

When asked about displaying the collars, workers said that it was a “tradition” that they found “funny” and “a little” creepy.

Live Pigeons Drowned in Crates
Live pigeons were packed into plastic crates at Bio Corporation. Workers submerged the crates in tubs of water, drowning the birds, and a worker admitted that they didn’t die quickly.

The American Veterinary Medical Association deems death by drowning inhumane and unacceptable. A veterinarian who watched PETA’s footage commented that drowning would cause the pigeons “prolonged pain and distress,” taking as long as 10 minutes; that the birds would panic, hyperventilate, and struggle to keep their heads above water; that they would hold their breath until they couldn’t any longer; and that their lungs would then fill with water—leading to vomiting, painful spasms of the airways, and finally, loss of consciousness, cardiac arrest, and death.

Turtles ‘Come Back to Life’ and Are Then Refrozen
Turtles were shipped frozen to Bio Corporation, but workers—including a supervisor—said that the turtles sometimes “come back to life.” Workers said that the conscious turtles were then put back into a freezer.

One worker said that it’s “creepy as sh*t” when employees “put ’em in the freezer again so they f*cking freeze … it’s pretty f*cking cool.”

One veterinarian commented that the turtles would experience hypothermia, pain, and prolonged suffering.

No Animal Makes It Out Alive
Live crayfish were shipped to Bio Corporation in boxes without air holes. They were injected, while conscious, with liquid latex. A worker admitted that death didn’t come quickly. One veterinary expert commented that the crayfish would “likely experience prolonged pain and suffering due to oxygen deprivation to tissues, suffocation, and cellular trauma and death.”

Live rabbits who ended up at Bio Corporation were put into a “machine,” according to a worker. Dissection suppliers like this one also sell fetal pigs—bought from slaughterhouses where their mothers were evidently killed—along with sheep eyes, bull testicles, snakes, frogs, sharks, and other animals and their body parts to schools.

We Can End Dissection
Whether they arrive dead or alive, animals deserve better. Bio Corporation only profits because schools still purchase animals for dissection, even though modern, humane methods exist.

Many states, school districts, and schools give students the right to say NO to dissection—check here. And even if there isn’t such a law in your state, speak out against this cruelty and demand a humane alternative. Learn how to cut animal dissection out of your school’s curriculum, and e-mail us at [email protected] for backup.

Urge schools and education officials who have purchased animals from Bio Corporation to replace cruel dissection with modern, humane methods.

Take Action Now!

Fields with an asterisk(*) are required. 

Giving us your date of birth helps us to make sure we send you the most relevant actions to help animals!

Get texts & occasional phone calls for Action Alerts, local events, & other updates to help animals with peta2! (optional)