Veterans call on US Army to end weapon-wounding experiments on animals
Over 250 U.S. veterans are urging the Army to stop testing weapons on live animals, a practice involving shootings, mutilations, and lethal trauma experiments.
Credit: Chimp Haven
Over 250 former U.S. Army service members have urged the military to reinstate the ban on testing weaponry on animals.
To mark Veterans Day, the service members collaborated with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to send a letter calling on Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth to ban all weapon-wounding tests on animals from her branch of the service.
Published experiments and internal documents obtained from the armed forces reveal that U.S. military agencies test all manner of weaponry on animals, from bombs to biological, chemical, and nuclear agents.
“Using animals as cannon fodder is a retreat to an archaic policy,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA is urging Secretary Wormuth to heed the calls of hundreds of former service members this Veterans Day by ending these abhorrent weapon-wounding experiments on all animals in favor of superior, human-relevant research methods.”
The ongoing battle to protect animals from the military
For years, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) conducted “wound labs,” during which conscious or semiconscious dogs, goats, and other animals were shot with high-powered weapons so military doctors and scientists could study the effects.
In 1983, PETA exposed the DOD’s plans to purchase dozens of dogs from animal shelters and shoot them on a firing range in Maryland. This led to the military halting the program and issuing the first-ever permanent ban on the shooting of dogs, cats, and primates in wound labs.
Then, in 2005, the Army strengthened these protections by issuing Regulation 40-33, which prohibited the use of dogs, cats, nonhuman primates, and marine mammals in “[r]esearch conducted for development of biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons.”
Photo: PETA
But, in early 2020, the Army quietly reversed this ban on weapon-wounding testing, overturning decades of progress, according to PETA. This was revealed publicly after the Army command turned aside a bid by the animal rights organization to determine how many such experiments had been conducted.
Policy 84, issued by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC), now allows “[t]he purchase or use of dogs, cats, nonhuman primates, or marine mammals to inflict wounds upon using a weapon for the purpose of conducting medical research, development, testing, or evaluation.”
“Weapon-wounding tests on dogs, cats, monkeys, and marine animals are a bloody stain on the uniform worn by those who bravely serve,” said Shalin G. Gala, PETA’s Vice President of International Laboratory Methods. “They do nothing to advance human health, and the U.S. Army should rescind its order allowing such abhorrent tests immediately.”
Extreme abuse
The DOD, its contractors, and companies working for the Department of Homeland Security conduct secretive trauma training exercises, often called “live tissue training,” in which thousands of live animals—primarily pigs and goats—are maimed and killed every year.
In a New York Times article, one service member described what happened to a pig during a trauma training exercise: “[Instructors] shot him twice in the face with a 9-millimeter pistol, and then six times with an AK-47 and then twice with a 12-gauge shotgun. And then he was set on fire. … I kept him alive for 15 hours.”
In 2012, undercover footage released by PETA revealed disturbing practices at a Tier 1 Group military training course. The video showed live goats subjected to severe mutilation, including leg amputations and organ removal, with inadequate anesthesia. Participants and instructors were seen laughing during the procedures. Following PETA's complaints, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued an official warning to Tier 1 Group for violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
However, there are small steps of progress happening. A US Army-funded brain-damage experiment on ferrets at Michigan’s Wayne State University ended more than six months ahead of schedule following public outcry when news of the experiments went public.
Useless to humans
The letter from the 250 veterans states that animal experiments are ineffective for humans due to significant physiological differences between species. Supporting this, a study published in Military Medicine reveals that nearly 80 percent of U.S. NATO allies have eliminated the use of animals in military medical training. Even a leading Army surgeon has also acknowledged that “there still is no evidence that [live tissue training on animals] saves lives,” according to PETA.
The leading solution to eliminate animals from military tests is simulation-based trauma training. Thanks to developments in biomedical simulation technology, from human patient simulation to computer-assisted learning software and virtual reality programs, alternative - and superior - training methods are available.
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