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In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors.
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Rescue Critters offer alternative to veterinary practice on
animals
Tuesday April 15, 2003
LOS ANGELES (AP) Veterinary students and animal care workers
who need to practice treating animals no longer have to rely on
stuffed animals.
Craig Jones, president of Rescue Critters, has been producing
anatomically correct animal mannequins to teach animal care, CPR
and veterinary skills.
Jones said the business started about five years ago after he
worked as a production manager at Universal Studios and as a CPR
instructor at Camarillo State Hospital. An injury forced him to
look for a new career and his business idea came when he went to a
class on pet first-aid and noticed the instructor using a stuffed
animal.
Jones enlisted his wife, who worked on costumes at Universal
Studios, and formed a five-person team to create Jerry, a canine
CPR mannequin, in his garage. The animal mannequin was made with
working lungs and an artificial pulse to practice mouth-to-snout
resuscitation, splinting and bandaging.
About 40 dog mannequins soon were made and Fluffy, a feline
version, also was created.
Veterinary schools from around the world began calling and the
animal mannequins started to become an alternative to practicing
medical techniques on live animals.
Jones and his partners did not consider themselves
anti-vivisectionists at first, but they have come to embrace the
Animal Welfare Act's call to ``refine, reduce and replace'' live
animals in veterinary training.
``You have to start somewhere to make the world a better
place,'' said Pruneda, the company's vice president. ``And a
society that treats animals humanely seems like a good place to
start.''
Laura Rasmussen, director of surgery and clinical skills at
Western University of Health Sciences' College of Veterinary
Medicine, has worked with Jones to develop other models.
``The Female K-9 Urinary Catheter Training Mannikin, that was my
idea,'' Rasmussen said.
A colleague is working on the ``Bovine Rectal Palpation
Mannikin,'' which is used to teach students how to gauge a cow's
pregnancy.
Rescue Critters also makes ``Fetch,'' a canine search-and-resuce
mannequin used to train police, firefighters and animal regulation
officers on how to extricate trapped dogs. Search-and-rescue teams
also train with the mannequin to learn how to rappel with a rescue
dog.
Other products include the $5,675 ``Lucky'' the rescue horse,
the $795 ``Critical Care Fluffy,'' and disposable lungs and veins.
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On the Net:
Rescue Critters: http://www.rescuecritters.com
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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