Wu 1

David Wu
Professor Holly Batty
English 114
5 December 2014
The Beating Heart
Lub-dub, lub-dub, it was still beating on the piece of paper. I stared at it. I could hear
his cry. I wanted to put it back in the chest, but my hands were stuck. Lub-dub, lub-dub
May 20, 2013, one week before the final. After Mr. Heard announced that we were going
to have a dissection, behind me, a cheer sounded, and the biology class erupted into a noisy
atmosphere. I was delighted. I peered through the door when I walked by the lab everyday.
Throwing aside the tedious vocabulary list, I finally got the chance to wear the white gloves and
hold the scalpel. Sitting in the lab, I fiddled with the scalpel and the tweezers like a child. Mr.
Heard came in, pulling a blue basket into the room. I saw a frog leg at the edge of the basket.
One girl screamed in a low volume. I sneered, They are dead, I thought in my mind. I didnt
feel sorry about the frogs because I believed science needs sacrifice. Clones would not have been
invented if the scientist didnt do countless experiments on animals. With the curiosity that I
could see the real organs rather than the boring textbooks pictures, I took the frog back to my
seat.
I fixed the frog on the dissecting pan with needles. I saw the frogs legs are flapping. I
am shocked. I thought it was just a reflex, but I start to realize that the frog did not die because
he is cloaking. It seems he is aware that he is going to die. Gabriel, my partner, urges me to start
dissect. I used the scalpel to slip through the frogs abdomen. Under her instruction, I took out
the stomach, following the intestines. After we measured the length of the lungs, Gabriel and I

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took a picture with the frog. Everything was going well. The next step was to cut the spinal cord.
Gabriel handed the scissors to me. Ah! Both Gabriel and I screamed. The frog jumped up, and
with such an immense amount of force that it flicked the needles off. It fell on the pan with the
abdomen toward the ceiling. A red, coin-size tissue is pumping. It rises then falls, repeating. It is
the heart of the frog. It is still alive! I forgot to mention, Mr. Heard walked by and said, I just
bashed these frogs on the wall this morning. I was shocked. Their head were smashed on the
wall, maybe with their shrill cries. Some of the frogs organs were spilled all over the ground.
Dark red blood streams dripped down from Mr. Heards hands. Is this the science that I love?
I wondered.
This reminds me the book Eating Animals. The author Jonathon Safran Foer illustrated
the crucial scene in the animal factory. He sneaked into several animal factories in order to find
the truth of the animals conditions. As a result, Foer founded out that many animal factories
workers treated animals such as cows, pigs and chickens in inhuman way. He believes animals in
the factories did not receive animal rights. Foer portrays the workers in the factory sawed off
pigs legs and skinned them while they were still conscious (Foer 182). Now I think Mr.
Heards action towards the frogs are no different than those workers in the factory. They were
both killing and torturing animals to death in an inhumane way. Now I thought it was cruel to
dissect a frog when he was alive. Maybe he was watching his organs being taken out? Maybe
his parents were looking for their loved one, while I was boasting in front of my parents that I
did a frog dissection. It was immoral to establish my pleasure on others pain. I put down my
scalpel.
Take out the heart, Gabriel instructed. I looked into the frogs body. Along the top of
the lung the heart was still beating. I started to question the purpose of the dissection. I told

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myself that I was going to kill a living creature. I hesitated. David! What are you waiting for?
Are you scared? Gabriel sneered. I took up the scalpel. I did not want to be a coward in front of
my peers. There was a moral voice in my head telling me that I should not do it. My hands were
shaking.
I made an eye contact with the frog, though he did not look at me. He is looking He
should be swimming and jumping in a pond rather than being dissected to die. I am helpless. I
start to understand Frank Reese, who is a poultry farmer mentioned in Eating Animals. Reese is
the minority who resists the routine of animal factory, raising turkey without rushing for profits.
He is able to recognize each turkey in the fence. He loves those turkeys, but he still has to send
them to the slaughterhouse. Reese describes: They look at me and I tell them, Please forgive
me. I cant help it (Foer 115). I think both Reese and I feel helpless not only because we knows
those animals are going to die, but also because we are causing their death. I closed my eyes,
cutting off the artery and the vein of the heart. I put it on a piece of paper.
Lub-dub, lub-dub. It was still beating. I stared at it. I wanted to put it back in his chest,
but my hands were stuck. After five seconds, it stopped beating.
I raised my head and glanced at the biology book. There was an image of a frogs heart in
the textbook, just as the one in front of me. Through dissection, I did not find any new
discoveries or knowledge. The dissection was pointless, just like other the mice experiments that
are mentioned in Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat. The author Hal Herzog argues
that most of the time scientists do not have prominent discoveries after doing countless
experiments on mice. Consequently, those mice died suffering with unnecessary sacrifice.
Herzog believes there should be law protecting the process to apply using mice to do research.

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Doing the frog dissection only satisfied my curiosity and vanity. I never thought I would kill a
living creature before. Looking at my bloody hands, I smiled bitterly.
The frog dissection changed my point of view toward human and animals, even plants. I
realize we are all equal living creatures, who can feel pain and love. I admitted that humans have
the power over animals because we are the intelligent ones who dominate the world and have the
power to kill. However, it doesnt mean that we can treat other animals in an inhumane way. It is
immoral and imprecise to judge animals based on their physical appearance and ability. Some
newborn baby with congenital defect even do not have the same ability as animals, will human
kill the baby? Protecting animal rights is everyones responsibility. For animals research, I hope
there will be a strict law that can monitor each experiments rationality. Someone might think
there is no point to save those mice in the lab; they are going to die anyway. However, although
mice or other animals are often ignored, they should gain equal and moral treatment from
humans. Although maybe I will never become a vegetarian, I will oppose those people who hurt
or kill animals with pointless reasons. We should treat other animals equally as pet dogs and cats.

Work Cited
Foer, Jonathan Safran. Eating Animals. New Tork: Little , Brown, 2009. Print.
Herzog, Hal. Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why Its so Hard Think Straight
about Animals. New York, NY: Harper, 2010. Print