06/10/2026
Our state needs leaders that would stand up like these 13 did in Colorado!
"Surgeons-in-training cut open live animals to remove organs and perform procedures. Then staff kill the animals. But 13 state legislators want to see that practice stopped. In a letter sent last Thursday, the senators and representatives urge CU Anschutz Chancellor Donald Elliman to “employ modern training methods in order to benefit both patients and animals.” The letter was organized by Senate President Pro Tempore Cathy Kipp and signed by House Majority Leader Monica Duran, among others.
The letter builds on years of work by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit medical ethics group, to convince CU Anschutz to follow the example set by most universities and hospitals across the country. According to the group’s ongoing survey, 80 percent of surgery programs teach using only cadavers or advanced simulators modeled on human anatomy and physiology. That list includes the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, Yale University, and hundreds of other institutions.
Public records obtained by the Physicians Committee from CU Anschutz show the medical center used live pigs in training exercises in May 2023, 2024, and 2025. Plans for this year are unknown.
“Colorado patients deserve doctors trained on human anatomy,” said Sen. Kipp. “If Harvard and Stanford can train surgeons without harming animals, CU can too.”
DENVER, Colo.—Every May, the University of Colorado Anschutz conducts a controversial exercise increasingly out of step with most medical centers: Surgeons-in-training cut open live animals to remove organs and perform procedures.
