By Dawn McPherson
A recent article in The New York Times has reignited the controversy over the U.S. Department of Defense's long-standing practice of using animals in military experiments and training exercises.
The Nov. 2 article featured a Navy medic recounting his participation in a trauma training course in which anesthetized pigs were used as the surrogate trauma victims. The article quoted the medic as saying:
The idea is to work with live tissue. You get a pig and you keep it alive. And every time I did something to help him, they would wound him again. So you see what shock does, and what happens when more wounds are received by a wounded creature. My pig? They 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. That was my pig.
The Department of Defense was heavily criticized for using dogs in gruesome experiments during the Reagan administration, and since then seems to have made a calculated move to substitute farm animals in at least some of its procedures. Few members of the public have been mollified by this ploy, judging from the many concerned citizens who have contacted The HSUS, outraged over the fate of the pigs depicted in the Times story.
The HSUS has written to the newly appointed U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, and key members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, urging the DOD and Congress to end this inhumane training.
The HSUS encourages the military to take full advantage of available alternatives, including sophisticated medical simulators of the human body that have many advantages over using animals. These simulators provide the opportunity to gain familiarity and comfort with medical procedures through unlimited repetition, anatomical and physiological realism given the differences between human and animal anatomy, and long-term cost savings compared to animal use given that animals require housing, food and the care of a veterinarian.
One of the available alternatives is the Trauma Man System, a simulator of the human body used for surgical training that includes the simulated tissue structures and bodily fluids (for more information, see www.simulab.com/TraumaSurgery.htm). In 2001, the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma approved the use of Trauma Man for Advanced Trauma Life Support courses. Also available is "The Ultimate Hurt" manikin that comes with a wide range of trauma wound modules to add realism to training exercises. Additional alternatives include clinical experience by training in emergency rooms in metropolitan areas, the use of human cadavers and ballistic gelatin (used to simulate living soft tissue in order to measure bullet impact), and videotapes prepared under actual combat conditions.
The HSUS supports proper training in order to ensure that our military personnel receive the best medical care possible while in combat. No animals should be wounded, suffer, or die for medic training, given the advantages of the many non-animal alternatives.
Dawn McPherson is the research assistant for the Animal Research Issues section of The Humane Society of the United States
