Group Seeks to End Maiming and Killing of Live Animals in Trauma Training Exercises
For Immediate Release:
February 8, 2011
Contact:
Robbyn Brooks 757-622-7382
Fort Bragg, N.C. — After receiving an urgent tip from a concerned Fort Bragg soldier revealing that tomorrow (Wednesday) retired civilian special forces and Navy SEALs plan to break the bones and cut the arteries of live goats during deadly and crude trauma training exercises, PETA has fired off a letter to the facility urging it to halt the inhumane plan. In a letter to Fort Bragg, PETA states that maiming and killing animals for this training is in apparent violation of Department of Defense (DOD) animal welfare regulations because modern and humane non-animal training methods are available, and DOD guidelines require that they be used.
"Cutting open and maiming goats in training exercises is archaic and does a disservice to our military personnel because superior and humane simulation-based training methods are available," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "Not only are these deadly practices cruel, they also leave soldiers underprepared for treating their wounded comrades on the battlefield."
According to military trauma training protocols uncovered by PETA and first-hand accounts from soldiers, live goats and pigs have holes cut into their limbs, throats, and chests in military trauma training exercises. These animals are sometimes even forced to endure stab wounds, fractured and amputated limbs, landmine blast injuries, burns from propane torches, and gunshot wounds to their face and abdomen.
The U.S. Army's Alfred V. Rascon School of Combat Medicine at Fort Campbell does not use animals in its trauma program, stating that "[t]raining on [simulators] is more realistic to providing care for a person than training on animals." Other military instillations—such as the Navy Trauma Training Center and the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Medical Skills Institute's Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills—have also replaced animals in their trauma training programs.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.