From the 'Where Credit's Due' department:

[yewberry]

An animal welfare group is donating $1 million worth of costly training mannequins to medical schools in nine countries to accomplish two goals: giving doctors more modern training, and saving the lives of about 1,000 animals a year.

The mannequins, called surgical simulators, are used in 98 percent of the trauma medicine courses in the United States offered by the American College of Surgeons; students use them, for example, to practice cutting holes between ribs to insert chest tubes.

-snip-

The company cut its mannequin price to PETA by about half, so the group will donate 64 mannequins to medical schools in Bolivia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Mexico, Mongolia, Panama and Trinidad. The schools will be able to buy replacement skins for about $30, Mr. Goodman added.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/health/petas-donation-to-help-save-lives-animal-and-human.html