School Defends Students Using Cat Intestines as Jump Rope

A Texas school district has defended one of its high schools after video showing anatomy students jumping rope with cat intestines went viral.

Officials with the North East Independent School District say the Churchill High School 11th- and 12th-grade students in the video, which disturbed some viewers, were merely demonstrating "the tensile strength of the organ." 

While sticking to their guns, school district officials admitted in a statement to media that future lesson plans may not include entrail jumprope.

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"The teacher participated in the same lesson during her college courses. However, we understand that best practices change over time and we believe there is a more appropriate way to demonstrate the concept," the statement read.

Apology or no, the viral video has incensed animal advocacy group PETA. 

The non-profit shot off a statement claiming that classroom dissection as a whole is cruel to the animal and even mind warping for the student.

"While we support the school's decision to end the use of intestines as jump rope, we're dumbfounded that an animal's entrails were used this way in the first place and that the practice was then defended," read a statement from PETA Science Education Specialist Samantha Suiter.

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While singing the praises of virtual dissection software, PETA even claims there's evidence that students are adversely affected by the real thing.

"Studies show that classroom animal dissection can foster callousness toward living beings, and these gruesome 'jump rope' videos are a particularly sad example," said PETA Senior Director of Youth Outreach and Campaigns Marta Holmberg. 

PETA also offered to demonstrate to the school its "humane life-affirming educational tools."

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