YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Protestors from a non-profit known as the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine showed up at Saint Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown to protest the hospital's use of animals in surgical training exercises.

According to the organization, pigs are used for training conducted at the Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) in partnership with a surgeon from Saint E's.

A press release from the organization states as part of the training, surgeons-in-training cut into live pigs and perform "invasive procedures" including cutting into the pigs' necks, chests and abdomens, as well as inserting surgical tools and performing procedures on their internal organs.

The pigs are then killed following the training.

"The hallmark of training a surgeon is to do a procedure repeatedly over and over again to become good at it. You can't do that once a year or so with a pig," said Jacob Dexter, a retired physician with Cleveland Clinic.

Saint Elizabeth is a Mercy Health hospital. According to a statement released to 21 News by Mercy, the surgical training program "fully complies with all laws, regulations, guidelines and ethical standards" for the treatment of animals in a medical education program.

"In addition, our surgical training methods follow strict protocols, set by our graduate medical education facility. These techniques are designed to train our highly skilled surgeons in advanced, complex surgical procedures to prepare them from real-world surgical cases," the statement reads.

Mercy's statement went on to say the animals used in the training receive "constant care and monitoring" in order to prevent pain and suffering, including the use of anesthesia.