I have exciting news! Recently, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed that it had suspended the use of animals in invasive trauma training courses pending an internal review. Previously, during these courses pigs and goats were shot and stabbed.
California Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard has been a strong leader on this effort, urging the Coast Guard to replace animal use. She even announced the news in a recent op-ed.
But while the Coast Guard is taking a closer look at its practices, the other military services continue to use thousands of animals each year in invasive training courses—even though human-relevant methods exist. But there's a bill in Congress that addresses this issue—the BEST Practices Act.
Please ask your representative to co-sponsor the BEST Practices Act by e-mailing today.
State-of-the-art human-relevant training methods like the Cut Suit (pictured above) can provide better training than the military's current use of goats and pigs.
With your help, we will modernize military medical training and end this cruel animal use. Thank you for your help.
Believe it or not, up until only a few years ago, operating on and then killing
pigs, goats, and sheep—and even homeless dogs—was a routine part of many medical
trauma training courses. Although there are still some institutions that
continue to use such archaic methods—hurting and killing animals to train
students—in just the last few weeks, PETA's international affiliates' campaigns
to end those crude and deadly practices have taken a long stride forward.
In
a monumental victory, the
U.S. Coast Guard just announced that it has become the first branch of the
American military to suspend the shooting, stabbing, and killing of animals in
trauma training drills. The Coast Guard will take time to study
human simulators and other non-animal training methods that PETA U.S. has
recommended. This wonderful news follows pressure from PETA U.S. and its ally,
U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, and the Coast Guard has confirmed that the
moratorium came into effect after a PETA U.S. eyewitness exposé prompted an
official review by the agency.
PETA
Australia is also gaining ground in its efforts to end deadly trauma training on
animals. The
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) announced that it, too, is ending
its use of animals for trauma training. This decision comes after
an extensive, nearly four-year-long campaign by PETA Australia, PETA U.S., and
Humane Research Australia, during which thousands of people sent e-mails to RACS
officials through online action alerts, more than 100,000 people signed a PETA
Australia petition, thought-provoking ads and protests featuring numerous
outspoken "pigs" made headlines across Australia, and medical experts from PETA
U.S. negotiated with the college.
And,
thanks to a donation of simulators from PETA U.S., Bangladesh, Ghana, Jamaica,
and Kenya are the latest countries to ban the use of animals in surgical trauma
training. We
are excited to report that this brings the number of countries that have ended
the cruel use of animals for Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) training to 20,
sparing thousands of animals every year! While state-of-the-art
human-patient simulators are now the standard for ATLS training in many
countries, a number of nations have yet to make the switch—often simply because
they lack the financial resources to do so. That's why PETA U.S. has donated
more than 100 TraumaMan simulators, valued at nearly HKD20 million, to national
ATLS training programs around the globe. Since 2014, these donations of
innovative simulators—which replicate breathing, bleeding human torsos—have
helped replace the use of animals in courses from Panama to Pakistan. PETA's
international affiliates are making medical history and moving medical training
away from a hideous dependence on animals.
While
there is still a great deal of work to be done to end the use of animals in
training and experimentation, so much progress in a matter of weeks shows how
much caring people can accomplish in making the world a kinder place for
animals.
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