Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University
Department of Zoology, Physiology and Human Hygiene
The contact was made through Dr Nataliya Gritsay from Rivne State Humanitarian University, with whose department we had signed a contract in 2016. Dr Vladimir Strigunov, Head of the Department of Zoology in Krywyi Rih, reported that his department had already replaced most animal experiments since Soviet times. With our help, the rest is now to be put to an end.
It is our first project in Krivyi Rih. Dimitrij Leporskij visited the large city in southern Ukraine on 26 November 2016 and handed over a notebook and lots of films and computer programs to simulate anatomical and physiological studies. The agreement was signed and the experiments on 155 vertebrates (70 frogs, 60 fish, 10 lizards, 10 mice, 5 birds) and 295 invertebrates such as earthworms, snails and crayfish will be discontinued from 1 Sept. 2017 at the latest. The experiments are mainly zoological studies, i.e. the animals are killed and dissected in order to study their anatomy. The frogs were also used to practise decapitation with scissors and the dissection of nerves and muscles to demonstrate their functions. That is now history.
Elena Komarova and Dr. Vladimir Strigunov from the Department of Zoology, Physiology and Human Hygiene in Krywyi Rih.
Control visit
The control visit took place on 27 June 2018 and Elena Komarova summed up the past year as very successful. The curriculum was reorganised on the basis of humane principles and the university teachers were trained in the new teaching methods with the help of several seminars. In December 2017, students from the 4th course held a round table at which they discussed the treatment of animals and the legal requirements in Ukraine and other countries.
