New York Medical College in Valhalla announced yesterday that it will no longer use live dogs in physiology classrooms.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the school has come under fire from community groups and politicians for being the last medical college in the state to use live animals for teaching purposes. Only 11 medical schools around the country still use animals for classroom demonstrations.

Students operated on the anesthetized dogs to learn about the physiology of the beating heart. The school's president, Karl Adler, told The Journal News that approximately seven dogs were used in classrooms per year.

Starting next year, students will use echocardiography to study the heartbeat of their fellow classmates, and will use simulators that demonstrate cardiac arrest.