Military medical training: warning: graphic descriptions
This is the most recent action alert the organization (Animal Place) I work for put out. Of course, the one I sent out had cute pictures of pigs to soften the horrors of these military practices. If you can take the time to write a simple, polite letter to all parties in the contact list, that would be a step in the right direction.
A recent article in the New York Times describes how Navy medics are trained in "trauma medicine", "You get a pig and you keep it alive. And every time I did something to help him (the pig), they would wound him again. 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." The medic seems to be proud that he kept the pig alive for 15 hours.
New York Times article
What you can do: Write a letter!! Below you will find contact addresses as well as links to find your federal Senate and House representatives. You can also write a letter to the editor of your local paper about this issue.
Points to Address:
- Trainees can learn trauma medicine by shadowing qualified physicians in any of the hundreds of emergency trauma centers in the country.
- It is unecessary and inhumane to inflict severe trauma on animals because of human made conflicts.
- Our world is violent enough, there is no need to add more unecessary suffering, especially not in the name of "education"
Contacts:
Robert Gates
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000 Rep. Duncan Hunter, Chair
House Armed Services Committee
2120 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515 Senator John Warner, Chair
Senate Armed Services Committee
228 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Find your United States Senators
Find your United States House Representative
The following is a SAMPLE letter - it is the letter I wrote to the following contacts, including our two Senators and one House representative. Please do not copy this letter, but do use it as a guide for writing your own letter.
November 29, 2006
Representative Duncan Hunter
Chair House Armed Services Committee
2120 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative Hunter,
On November 2, 2006, The New York Times profiled a Navy medic in Iraq. When asked about his training experience, he spoke of “advanced trauma courses” involving shooting and setting on fire an anesthetized pig. The pig he worked on was shot eight times and then set on fire - his job was to keep the pig alive, which he did for 15 hours.
In a world of violence, how can we sanction this behavior in the name of “education?” To cause animal suffering over human-made conflicts is both cruel to the animal and unnecessary for the trainee. Learning about trauma is important, no one is disputing that, but there are more appropriate venues for learning trauma medicine. For example, trainees could work in one of the hundreds of hospitals with emergency units for victims of gunfire, fire or other trauma. It makes far more sense for a medic to work directly with a qualified physician in a real-world situation than it does to induce unnecessary trauma in an anesthetized, immobile animal.
I urge you to take a stand against this unnecessary form of “training.” Please do not endorse such training methods; instead, use our limited governmental funds for training in hospitals, not shooting pigs.