Veterinary education relies on animal use for clinical training, with growing adoption of simulators, cadavers, and high-welfare training models reducing live animal use.
Veterinary training presents a welfare dilemma: students need clinical experience, but animal-based training carries welfare costs. The shift toward alternatives — simulators, cadavers, spay/neuter clinic training — is both ethically and educationally sound. Students trained on shelter animals that benefit from the procedures develop surgical skills while contributing to positive welfare outcomes. Terminal surgery labs, in which animals are killed after student procedures, have been largely phased out at leading institutions.