Animals are used extensively in education from primary schools to university level. The ethics of educational animal use and the alternatives available are increasingly important considerations.
Educational animal use raises welfare concerns at two levels: the animals used, and the attitudes toward animals that routine use may reinforce in students. Frogs and other animals used for dissection are typically collected or farmed with limited welfare consideration. Beyond direct welfare harm, there is evidence that routine dissection normalizes viewing animals as disposable materials rather than as individuals. Student opt-out policies and the availability of high-quality alternatives make animal dissection educationally optional in most contexts. Where alternatives produce equivalent learning outcomes — which evidence generally supports — the welfare cost of continuing live animal use becomes harder to justify.