Dental Schools Adding Big Game Hunting to Curriculum

In response to the furor over the killing of Cecil the Lion by an American dentist, some dental Schools are now requiring students to become licensed big game hunters before qualifying as dental practitioners.

“The publicity over Cecil the Lion is extremely upsetting,” said Marcus Molar, Director of the University Of Death Valley Dental Academy, CA. “We hope to avoid this kind of crisis in the future by teaching dentists the right way to exterminate exotic animals.”

Students will study hunting techniques, how to lure animals into traps, and how to create the ideal conditions for taking pictures of deceased creatures. Every Death Valley Dental Academy student will have to qualify for a Great White Enamel Hunter certificate before graduating.

A number of schools are also in the process of modifying their codes of conduct for professional dentists. The Muddy Waters University Online Dental School, AR, has revised its code so that practitioners are allowed to make patients wait while they complete a safari. This is already happening in some parts of the country. For example, the patients of a dental practice in Kentucky spent three weeks in the waiting room while their dentist tracked and shot a rare white rhino. Dentists are also allowed to mount hunting trophies in surgeries, providing the stuffed heads have an educational purpose such as displaying impressive incisors.

As more institutions adopt the new certification process the cost of going to dental school is sure to rise, and this will eventually be passed on to patients. But the schools claim that patients will be better served by dentists that are qualified big game hunters. Dentists will show that they have gained hunter accreditation by wearing white hats trimmed with fur.

Photo: Wikimedia