The State : Professor Sues UC Officials

A veterinary professor who offered students an alternative to practicing surgery on healthy, live dogs has filed suit against University of California officials. Nedim Buyukmihci, a tenured associate professor at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and an international animal rights advocate, claimed that he is being disciplined for opposing the needless killing of dogs in the classroom. “It is no more necessary for veterinary students to learn eye surgery by experimenting on healthy live dogs than it would be for medical doctors to learn eye surgery by experimenting on people,” Buyukmihci, 41, said in a statement. Instead, Buyukmihci said, he allowed students to operate on cadavers, terminally ill dogs or assist in actual operations on dogs that required surgery. In response, he said in the suit, university officials removed him as instructor of the class, denied him a merit pay raise that had been recommended by his department and have begun disciplinary proceedings that could result in his suspension or firing.