Melitopol State Pedagogical Bogdan-Chmelnitskiy University
Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Department of Ecology and Zoology
Project manager Dimitrij Leporskij initially visited six new interested departments in Kharkiv, Melitopol, Simferopol, Ternopil and Odessa at the beginning of 2012 to demonstrate animal-free teaching methods. All of the university lecturers visited were prepared to refrain from harmful animal use and killing animals in higher education in future and to switch to animal-free teaching methods.
The agreements were signed in April 2012. The university lecturers undertake to refrain from any animal use and killing in the respective course from the start of the new semester on 1 September 2012.
Dr Natalya Tarusova from the Department of Ecology and Zoology at the Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Melitopol State Pedagogical Bogdan Khmelnitskiy University.
Her department received a laptop and a range of textbooks, DVDs and models from us. About 45 frogs, rats, pigeons and lizards and 85 invertebrates every year will now not be dissected anymore.
Control visit
The control visit took place on 7 February 2013 and the university lecturers saw the change to computer technologies as a great advantage for student training. Many difficult chapters could be presented much more comprehensively and were easier for students to understand and learn. A survey initiated by the university lecturers revealed that 80.2 - 86.4% of students were in favour of animal-free teaching.