Animal Dissections Could Be Outlawed In California Classrooms With New Bill

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Students in any California public or private school, grades one through 12, could soon be prohibited from performing dissections.

Assembly member Kalra introduced the bill last week that would ban dissection in all schools, altering the California education code.

The current law allows students who have a moral objection to dissecting an animal in class to refrain from the dissection and complete an alternate education project approved by their teacher that teaches the same lesson.

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This bill would prohibit all dissection of "an invertebrate or vertebrate animal, as specified, in the study of biological sciences, excluding fixed histological samples of any species."

The bill was introduced last week into the legislature and has not yet been voted on or taken to a committee. You can read the full text of the bill here.