Many a stray dog has proved its worth in death - as a teaching aid for veterinary students - and your pet can too, especially now that Kasetsart University has ended its practice of culling specimens from the streets.

Science in general and the fight against disease in particular stand to gain if you're willing to donate your dog's remains to the school's Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

At the beginning of this year Kasetsart yielded to the guilt it was feeling over paying the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration Bt200 for every stray nabbed by the dog-catchers, euthanised and delivered to the veterinary wing.

"People who saw the city police catching the dogs cursed them and complained that they were being cruel - they knew the dogs would be killed," says hospital director Dr Vorasak Patchimasiri.

"The police didn't feel comfortable about it, and we at the university faced complaints from both citizens and the animal-welfare groups. The lecturers and students didn't feel good about it either.

"So we came up with the idea of seeking donations."

Deceased pets are now welcomed, a source that complements the small supply stemming from dogs that die while being treated at the hospital and are left by the owner. The owner's consent is needed in every case.

Kasetsart's veterinary students begin anatomy classes right from their first semester.

"It's a very crucial class," Vorasak says. "They study anatomy for three consecutive semesters and spend a lot of time on dissection in the lab.

"Ideally, we'd like to have one body for each student to dissect."

Once a donation is sanctioned and the dog's remains collected by staff from the anatomy department, the body undergoes a process in which fluid is drained and the preservative formalin injected. Blood type is ascertained and the body placed in cold storage.

Response to the donation programme has been relatively good, Vorasak says.

"We've collected nearly 40 bodies, so we think we'll have enough for every student next year," he says, explaining that the school requires 120 bodies a year.

The programme has not been widely publicised, however, so the idea is still new to many citizens.

Even fourth-year Kasetsart student Supinya Pongsopha, 21, is unaware of it, even though she brings her Labrador to the hospital to donate his blood.

"I think it's a good idea, but I'd have to consult my parents before I could decide whether to donate Moo-Krob's body," she says, referring to her pet.

Rojana Manowalailao finds the notion interesting and says she'd probably donate her dog when he dies, except that her home is a long way from the hospital, making it "logistically inconvenient".

Marisa Chimprabha, who owns three dogs, doesn't like the idea at all.

"I wouldn't be able to. If a pet dies, I like to bring the remains home from the hospital" - as she did when her cat died a few years ago - "and bury it at my place."

Sopaporn Kurz

The Nation