Animal cadaver business investigated; vets say it's helpful

Story Created: Nov 4, 2009 at 5:31 PM PST
Story Updated: Nov 5, 2009 at 9:41 AM PST

By Sabrina Rodriguez, Eyewitness News  Video BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez has called for an investigation into a Bakersfield business that kept dead horses behind its building.

Florez, D-Shafter, wants to know if the animals are being treated inhumanely.

Sargeant's Wholesale Biologicals is the business in question.

Michael Sargeant, the owner of SWB, has said that his is the only business on the West Coast that supplies animal cadavers to veterinary schools. That's true, and as it turns out, the products help train future veterinarians.

Both Oregon State University and University of California, Davis' veterinary programs get their cadavers from SWB, and school officials say it's a valuable teaching tool for their students.

"Just like physicians in training, medical students dissect human cadavers to learn human anatomy. Veterinary students need to do the same, and of course we have a range of animal species they need to be familiar with," explained Dr. John Pascoe, Executive Dean of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Pascoe says they've been getting their animal cadavers from SWB, almost exclusively, for nearly 20 years.

"Sargeant's is a superior product for us as far as instruction in anatomy is concerned," he said.

Pascoe adds it's the SWB's preparation of the cadaver that separates it from other commercial distributors.

"The quality of fixation or embalming, and the vessel injection," he said. "You can readily identify the difference between arteries and veins dissection."

While some veterinary schools use actual cadavers to train their students, others rely on software or realistic models to do the job.

But a statement about animal cadaver usage on the American Association of Veterinary Anatomists Web site says "cadaver dissection as the primary means of teaching anatomy has been long recognized."

While AAVA recognizes that there are computer assisted learning methods it adds, "there is no satisfactory substitute" for the dissection of a cadaver.

Florez has asked the California Department of Food and Agriculture to investigate the SWB's treatment of the animals. The USDA has also been contacted.

According to the city planning department, the area where SWB operates is currently zoned M2 which is "general manufacturing."

David Paquette, with Bakersfield Code Enforcement, says the business would better fit under M3 zoning and issued a notice for the owner to apply for a conditional use permit. Paquette says when the conditional use permit is in place it would allow the city to impose conditions on how the property is used.

http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/69246212.html