From the archives: Hofstra students on hunger strike

This story was originally published in Newsday on February 12, 2002.

Members of an animal rights group at Hofstra University are waging a hunger strike to protest the school's policy of requiring animal dissections in some biology courses, which the department chairman said is an important educational component.

About 20 representatives of the Hofstra chapter of the Student Organization for Animal Rights said their hunger strike began on Saturday. And, as part of a nationwide "day of action" where SOAR chapters at other colleges demonstrated for alternatives to dissection, the group held a small protest outside administration offices yesterday.

"We want to be able to pass classes without dissecting animals," said Mike Sweeny, 20, a junior who is vice president of the Hofstra chapter of SOAR. "We think Hofstra should have a policy for students who have ethical problems" with dissecting animals. He said about 250 have signed a petition seeking a policy change.

The biology department chairwoman, Dorothy Pumo, noted that only biology majors take courses that require dissection. She said she was aware of only one student within the past year who switched his major from biology to another discipline because of dissections. She added that students with such a dilemma are encouraged to talk with their advisers, noting that biology-related subjects that don't involve dissections are an alternative.

Sweeny, a journalism major who has not taken any biology classes, said he would like to see the university offer alternatives, such as computer dissection programs.

But Pumo said computer programs serve only a limited purpose and have been rejected for biology majors. She said, however, that there are plans to use computer-generated dissections for a new physician's assistant program. "Some of them are really cool," Pumo said of the computer programs. "But even the good ones only do something like six or eight parts of the [animal's] body, so far, because it takes so long to do the computer graphics."

Sweeny, who is a vegan, said he has not eaten since Friday and is drinking only water. "If they show progress of making alternatives to dissection, we'll stop hunger striking," he said. "Until then, we're going to continue this course of action."

Nick Cooney, 20, a junior and SOAR member, said he was uncertain how long he would remain on the hunger strike. "It depends on my body. But in terms of the importance of why we're doing this, if you can compare the dissection of animals to the dissection of human beings, I place the same value on each, then you see how horrible the event is."