Pre-dissection

Growing up, my family always went fishing and hunting. I knew and understood, at a very young age, that the animals we were killing or catching then, we would be eating later on. However, it didn’t quite make sense in my naïve brain that the chicken livers I would eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken were actually livers from a chicken. I knew they were the same thing we used as catfish bait, but I didn’t quite make all of the connections. When it all finally made sense in my brain, I was taken aback. It kind of grossed me out, but I decided that I had already eaten too many of them for it to matter now. I had also always helped clean the wild game that we had killed, and it never made me queasy, sick to my stomach, or second guess eating the meat later on. I have also had to dissect other small animals or parts of those small animals in other science classes, and it has never had a negative effect on me so far. However, I have never really dissected a chicken for the sake of looking at all of the different parts of a chicken. Although, I feel that it will have no effect on me because no other animal has, there is no way of knowing before we get in the lab and actually do the dissection. I have spoken with students who have already taken this course, and some say it made them turn down eating chicken a little more often than before. However, I am excited to gain this experience and knowledge because I know it will help me a lot in the future, near and far. In the near future, the dissection labs will obviously help me on Poultry Physiology exams and finals. It will also help me in later poultry classes. In the not so near future, the hands-on experience will help me in my career in multiple ways. In the field, I may have to be able to find a specific part of the bird for samples or research and not have a lot of time to do so. Once I am acquainted with the anatomy and physiology of a bird, I will be able to meet those requirements with no problem. I know the first dissection lab will be a huge self-learning experience, and I am excited to see how my body reacts around an open chicken. Also, I know it will be an awesome learning experience because I will finally get to put together all of the connections of the inside of a bird. After the first dissection, the others will become a lot easier and make more sense.