Under Intense Pressure Morristown NJ Hospital Abandons Use of Live Dogs for Medical Training

Morristown Medical Center, under fire for its use of live dogs to train its emergency medicine residents, announced Thursday it would abandon the practice.

The policy reversal came just days after an advocacy group for the humane treatment of animals paid for three billboards attacking the hospital’s use of dogs.

The hospital had defended the practice, saying the dogs were used in a single, four-hour offsite course to demonstrate surgical and other invasive procedures that could not be learned any other way.

The group that sponsored the billboards, Physicians Committee for Ethical Medicine, said the dogs were euthanized after the demonstrations.

“While practicing certain, life-saving procedures uncommonly seen in the Emergency Department on live tissue remains the best substitute for practicing on living humans, technological advances in simulators have become an acceptable alternative. As such, Morristown Medical Center will begin using either simulators or cadavers for this specialized, annual training,” the hospital said in a statement released Thursday afternoon.

“As we have said from the beginning, training our physicians and staff to provide the highest quality care for our patients is our priority and responsibility. We will continue to ensure that our emergency residents are able to safely and proficiently perform life-saving procedures.”

A hospital spokeswoman would not say where the dogs came from, saying only that the training sessions were done off site.

The hospital had come under criticism because it acknowledged on a survey that it used dogs in its emergency residency training program. It was the only hospital that said it used dogs.

Of the 160 hospitals surveyed by the Physicians Committee, only18 indicated they used live animals. But of those, only Morristown said it used dogs. The others used likely used pigs, the group said.

Kathleen O’Brien may be reached at kobrien@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @OBrienLedger. Find NJ.com on Facebook.