Thousands of live animals are shot, stabbed, dismembered, and burned every year in cruel and crude U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) trauma training exercises, even though the military already relies on the use of lifelike simulators and other effective non-animal training methods and DoD regulations require that alternatives to animals be used when available.

The U.S. Army’s own Rascon School of Combat Medicine at Fort Campbell does not use animals in its training program and has even publicly stated that “[t]raining on [simulators] is more realistic to providing care for a person than training on animals.” The Air Force’s Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills and the Navy Trauma Training Center also do not use animals to train soldiers.

Unlike mutilating and killing animals, training on simulators allows medics and soldiers to practice on accurate anatomical models and repeat vital procedures until all trainees are confident and proficient. Studies show that medical care providers who learn trauma treatment using simulators are better prepared to treat injured patients than those who are trained using animals.

German officials have even repeatedly blocked attempts by the U.S. Army to kill animals in training exercises in Germany after determining that doing so would violate the law given that alternatives to the use of animals are available. And government officials from numerous NATO allies—including Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Romania, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Croatia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Latvia and Slovakia—have informed PETA that they do not use any animals to train military medical personnel.

Please send a polite e-mail to your congressional representatives and urge them to cosponsor the Battlefield Excellence through Superior Training (BEST) Practices Act (H.R. 1417), which will responsibly phase out the U.S. military’s use of live animals in trauma training courses and require the use of ethically and scientifically superior non-animal training methods.

Article – Peta.org

Video – Peta.org