Would you ever dissect an animal?

I can't think offhand of any reasonably likely scenario in wich I'd dissect anything... but I won't say I wouldn't under any circumstances do it. And good for you. Go ahead and be a drama queen if that's what it takes! It's far better that than to casually view things as being nothing but pieces of meat.

I'm not sure if I would... even if there was a good reason or something useful to be gained from it.
Is it not possible to learn from books and photos?

I have never dissected anything but I wasn't a vegetarian when I was school age and I DID watch a dissection on two separate occasions of an eye and a heart, both from a pig I think.

And to throw in a similar thought...

Has anyone caught the program 'Inside Nature's Giants'? In case you haven't heard of it, they basically film a dissection of an animal, usually one that has been killed in the wild or has been euthanized (whole other discussion there!)

I've watched a couple of the series and found especially interesting the episode about the cassowary, which is a large flightless bird. They discuss the internal structures and how they can possibly trace evolutionary links to other animals, extinct and living. In the case of the cassowary, it was the first known dissection and was done in order to learn more about their lives in the wild in order to protect them and their habitats. So perhaps dissection in this case is a necessary evil?

The dignity of a dead animal is certainly compromised by filming a dissection, is an autopsy is sometimes necessary to discover how an animal died?

Hmm, I'll stop there for now... loads of discussion fodder there already!

I see no problem in cutting open a dead thing. When you (or an animal) is dead it can't take knowledge of the fact. It's only shocking for relatives, but the dead person can't feel, think or be shocked. BUT, killing an animal just to cut it open is a pretty fucked up thing to do. If you do that to a human they lock you up and call you insane, but it's ok with animals? What a hypocrite moral this society has... :(

ugh i admit when i was younger i did. i was morally bankrupt, and now i definitely regret it. i wont ever dissect an animal, besides humans, again. like previous people stated, humans are the only animals that volunteered

Yes, I would and I did. No moral concerns about it at all - it was a heart of animal, that was dead anyway and as a waste product it would be thrown away anyway, therefore I don't see anything immoral about using it for educational purposes before it was. Throwing it away to the bin bothered me though, as I thought, that it should be treated with more respect, but that wasn't my decision.
I'm concious of the fact, that if I'm going to study medicine, I would do dissection, because it is important to know how internal organs of animals similar to human look and feel, it doesn't do any harm to them after their death anyway and can't save their life in any way.