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Sixteen-year-old high school junior Brynnan Grimes was appalled when she learned last August that she’d have to skin and dissect a cat during her anatomy class at Culpeper County High School.

“I never imagined ever having to face the choice to dissect something that I view as my child,” Brynnan said in an telephone interview Wednesday. “And something that would mean so much to me. It just blew me away. I was so surprised.”

Just a few weeks into the school year, Brynnan’s mom Tamira Thayne, of Amissville, said she emailed her daughter’s teacher, asking why the high school instructed the students to dissect cats.

“I told her that I didn’t agree with it and she never responded to me so that’s when we decided to do a petition because basically we felt that our concerns were ignored,” said Thayne, who withdrew her daughter from CCHS at the beginning of the school year. “Cats are companion animals and the thought of doing that to them is horrifying. I can’t get over the fact that they do this and are very blasé about it.”

In December, Thayne started an online petition “Don’t force our children to skin cats” on the Change.org website.

As of Thursday, Thayne collected more than 103,000 signatures toward her 150,000 goal.