After hundreds of our supporters sent a message to the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG), they have announced that they will be cancelling the workshop that involved using live sheep for laparoscopic training.

RANZCOG was planning to use live sheep to train surgeons how to do gynaecological surgeries at their upcoming conference, despite the existence of better and more ethical methods.

We were concerned for two main reasons: for the well-being of future human patients, and the wellbeing of the sheep they are performing surgery on.

We reached out to the RANZCOG Board, Council and the Conference Organising Committee members urging them to stop their plans to use live sheep and use a better, more ethical method instead.

We received a disappointing response, RANZCOG were still planning on going ahead with their plans to use live sheep to train obstetricians and gynaecologists at their upcoming laparoscopic training workshops.. They must have been embarrassed about it because they then removed all mention of the laparoscopic workshop from the annual scientific meeting program!

NZAVS had even offered to help source alternative equipment that could be used instead and could train the students better.

We then asked our wonderful supporters to send an online message to RANZCOG, urging them to end their plans to use live sheep. Enough people sent a message for RANZCOG to realise how important this is!

Together we did it — live sheep will no longer be used to train on at the upcoming conference. Learn more here.