What do you feel while dissecting a cat,dog,pig,etc?

For all Veterinarians, vet students, and other animal related careers out there, I am sure you have already dissected animals.What did you feel the first time you have dissected an innocent animal?Was it dead already? (I heard some students/practitioners have to remove an eye,cut the leg,spay or experiment a live animal and then they put it down after)Where did you get the animal?

When I was going to vet tech school, dissections didn't really bother me. I was honestly so curious and fascinated, I didn't have time to be bothered by it. We had cats and we got them from a medical supply company that had preserved them and injected latex into the veins and arteries. They got them from local shelters (only animals that had already been put down, not cats put down specifically for that). Most places now do NOT do dissections on live animals (even when unconscious), partly because it seems cruel and partly because the medications needed to keep the animal under cost you more that purchasing specimens from suppliers. There were a few people in my lab that were bothered by enough to leave the program. It honestly serves as a good indicator of how well you'll handle stuff like that when you get a job. There are much worse things to see and do in veterinary medicine than dissecting a cat. As examples: clean and debride a wound from flesh eating bacteria, remove necrotic intestines from an animal in surgery, the list could go on for quite a while.It may be hard for you the first time you do it, but if you're really cut out to work in that field, you'll get through it.Hope this helps.