Vet School Vice President Refutes Claims of Animal Cruelty
By Ryan Haas
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-ROSS University Vice President of Marketing and Enrollment, Peter Goetz, stated in an exclusive interview Wednesday that he feels “there is no island in the Caribbean where animals are treated better than in St. Kitts,” and that any claims of animal abuse at the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine (RUSVM) are “utterly false.”
Allegations of animal cruelty came to the forefront of RUSVM issues this past Monday (March 17th) as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) staged a two person protest in front of the campus.
Goetz stated that the entire incident arose after one student took photographs of sheep shortly after they had received surgery.
“I have seen the photographs and they are pretty innocuous. They merely depict 
sheep that were shaved and had routine surgeries performed on them. The animals were in no pain during these procedures, nor were they ever treated cruelly,” said Goetz.
PETA stated in a letter addressed to RUSVM Dean of Students, Dr. David DeYoung, that they wanted the university to “stop obtaining and killing animals for the use in Small Animal Surgery and Large Animal Surgery courses.”
They further insist that a large number of veterinary schools use “computer-based learning methods” to teach students how to perform surgery.
Goetz contends that PETA’s facts are misleading. “I would say that one-half to three-quarters of American veterinary schools follow the same procedures we do here at Ross.
The American Veterinary Medical Association has visited our school several times and we have proven to be in compliance with their standards, including the ‘three R’ tenants of the Russell and Burch handbook,” said the VP.
~~Adz:Left~~ The “three R” tenants are highly regarded in the world of veterinary medicine and state that schools should always work to refine methods to reduce or eliminate animal pain and distress, reduce the number of animals involved and replace animals with non-living models whenever it is possible to achieve the same scientific objective.
“Our goal is to make students prepared to save the lives of animals and our methods have proven time and again to do so.
“The people of St. Kitts have been wonderful hosts to our school. In return, we offer several free or nearly free veterinary services as thanks to the community, including spays and neutering, and in the future we will continue to do whatever we can to improve the lives of animals in St. Kitts and the rest of the world,” said Goetz.
