The second day after my 24 hour flights, they got me up at 4 AM for a four hour bus ride across the desert, to speak at the Universidad privada San Juan Bautista - a private university and veterinary school, in the town of Ica. We got back around midnight. However it went extremely well and it was amazing to see the arid deserts of coastal Peru. In the Australian desert there is usually some greenery, but these were like the surface of Mars, apparently devoid of all life.

All the alternatives came with us...

And the veterinary students were extremely interested in them. Here I'm demonstrating the 'Glass Horse' dissection simulation on my beloved Mac, ably assisted (as with my presentations) by my star translator Teresa. This was fairly essential, given that I couldn't speak Spanish and most of them couldn't speak English.

Here Dr. Alberto Delgado, who teaches as the Universidad Ricardo Palma veterinary school in Lima, using the Critical Care Jerry mannequin from Rescue Critters and other alternatives, demonstrates the use of Jerry. This mannequin produces normal and a range of pathological heart and breath sounds, and does several other things.

Here a student practices endotracheal intubation with Jerry. The tube must be correctly positioned in the airway to allow connection to an anaesthetic gas machine.

These students are exploring a human surgical mannequin from Limbs and Things. The simulated subcutaneous tissue above the artery is disgustingly fatty, and gloves are strongly advisable, just as in real life!

As the sun set, I met these two llamas that had wandered up to the door of the lecture theatre. They wandered around the veterinary school grounds. Here one is just about to spit at me! Note the flattened ears...

The next day it was off to the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia vet school in Lima, for a presentation to about 40 interested students and faculty, followed by this meeting with the faculty. Most were supportive of the idea of humane alternatives, other than the physiology academic at the left (just like when I was a student!), who strongly believed in having her students perform invasive animal experiments. By the end though, eyes had been opened and bridges formed, and she assured me she allowed alternatives for students who requested them.

Next it was off to this major radio/TV station for what I'd been told would be a radio station. At the last minute though, it turned into a TV interview! Milagros had known all along, but neglected to tell the rest of us. That was fine though - I like surprises! It was just lucky we'd brought our 'Fluffy' cat mannequin from Rescue Critters.

Teresa did a fabulous job translating again. We both had to be fast and short, given that it was for TV. This required focus - not easy given that the cameraman was silently struggling not to burst out laughing the whole time - I presume at Fluffy, but we never found out. It was extremely distracting though. It's amazing what you can ignore when you have to. The clips can be watched here, here and here.

The next evening UPA organised their Conference for Animal Protectionists.

UPA Director Corrine opened proceedings with a short presentation about UPA. She is obsessed with dolphins, and predictably managed to include them in her presentation.

Then UPA had me give no less than five presentations! I'm amazed at the many people who managed to stay all the way to the end...

Especially given that I wasn't speaking a language they could understand! Thankfully, Rosemary did a great job in translating my messages into Spanish...

As did Teresa! Here I'm speaking about Animals Count, our British political party for people and animals.

Quite possible the gourmet vegan food was the reason they all stayed so late!

Activists conference food close-up 1

Certainly it was the main reason I was there... heh heh... :)

The next day we met the Faculty at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos vet school in Lima, and provided another presentation. That evening was the start of the main Humane Education & Animal Welfare Conference held at the vet school, organised by all of these wonderful people and more.

Extremely importantly, the conference was sponsored by Nescafe, and this wonderful Nescafe girl provided free coffee throughout!

I gave five one hour presentations over three days.

Computer simulations of dissections often offer additional educational features not offered by traditional dissections.

They may be made freely available via the internet, allowing students to revise and use them at time that suit them, or from home, etc. This example was created by Colorado State University veterinary school.

Mannequins can be used instead of live animals to teach clinical skills such as CPR. Here University of Queensland veterinary student Dr Bryony Dixon practices on a Jerry mannequin. In 2011 she became one of the first UQ students to graduate without participating in harmful animal use.

However, the more sophisticated mannequins can be costly, so at the Universidad Ricardo Palma vet school the students make their own! These canine legs are used for venipuncture (blood draw) training.

Here Dr Dixon uses a a haptic bovine rectal palpation simulator (for learning pregnancy diagnosis) at the Royal Veterinary College near London. Haptic simulators apply forces to students' fingertips that are anatomically appropriate depending on their position inside the simulation.

Plastination is one of several methods that can be used to permanently preserve cadavers and organs, eliminating the need to source new animals each year. Very large animals can be successfully plastinated.

Here anatomy instructor Dra. Miluska Navarrete Zamora from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos vet school (hosting this conference) describes their anatomy museum. It is entirely filled with specimens that are ethically sourced (died naturally, in accidents, or been euthanized for medical reasons). No animals were killed for educational purposes. This is wonderful and incredible! It may be the only such collection worldwide.

I also spoke on several other topics, including the animal welfare standards of veterinarians.

Exciting developments are happening in this field, including the creation of several recent veterinary organisations dedicated to animal protection or ethics, such as Sentient - the Veterinary Institute for Animal Ethics, in Australia.

This time we had simultaneous translation between English and Spanish. It worked surprisingly well. These were our wonderful translators.

UPA distributed CDs containing all of my powerpoint presentations, as well as Spanish translations of a couple of my articles (on humane teaching methods and the animal welfare standards of vets), and some educational computer simulations of animal experiments.

UPA also has Spanish translations of some of my works as well the the InterNICHE alternatives book available at its website, and was also distributing Spanish versions of my student guidebook Learning Without Killing to students at the conference.

This student told me she'd really taken it all to heart, and was planning to wage a campaign for alternatives at her own university. We reached many students and the feedback from almost everyone was positive.

UPA raffled a copy of my book The Costs and Benefits of Animal Experiments. This student was the winner. I pitied the poor lad - it's quite a scientific book and hard enough to read for a native English speaker, let alone someone who is not! Still, as my PhD supervisor said of the bulky thesis on which it was based, 'it'll always come in useful for pressing flowers'!

Several students wanted to be photographed with me, which did my ego no end of good! :)

But the real stars of the show were the alternatives.

Dr. Alberto Delgado Alburqueque is again showing off the mannequins he had his vet students make.

We had another large alternatives exhibition.

CD ROMs

The media were very interested in the alternatives...

And even asked me a few questions too.

Some of the students also interviewed me. These were recording my answers on a smart phone I think, to play them to their classmates at some university far away.

At the end Dr. Alberto kindly presented me with my very own venipuncture mannequin, made by one of his students!

Note the size differences. I kept telling the girls men need more food, but no-one believed me. I was right, though...

Around this time we also visited the veterinary school at the Universidad Ricardo Palma in Lima. Two of our major alternatives advocates are faculty members there: Drs Alberto Delgado Alburqueque (second from left), and Mauricio Jara Aguirre (right). The Dean is at the far left. The Dean and faculty were very positive about alternatives.

They took us for a tour of their surgery laboratory. Here, the students gain surgical experience by assisting with beneficial surgeries on real patients.

Dr. Alberto demonstrates his ECG machine.

Vet school Lima Ricardo Palma surgical laboratory monitoring equip