GOATS

july the 6th of 2012

12 Goats Who Are Depending on You--and You Alone!

Goats need your help! Coast Guard training instructors were captured on video cutting off the limbs of live, semiconscious goats with tree trimmers and pulling out the animals' internal organs. You think that's awful, right? Well, see just how much goats are depending on you to help end these horrific training exercises!

Who could let adorable goats like this down? Not you!

Take action now to urge U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security officials to take immediate steps to comply with federal regulations and completely replace the use of animals in all military trauma training with superior non-animal training methods

Leaked Video: Live Goats' Legs Cut Off With Tree Trimmers

Each year, more than 10,000 live animals are shot, stabbed, mutilated, and killed in horrific military training exercises that are supposed to simulate injuries on the battlefield. But the training exercises that are taking place in these highly secret courses bear no resemblance to real battlefield conditions—and they don't help soldiers save the lives of their injured comrades. In disturbing, never-before-seen undercover video footage leaked to PETA showing a Coast Guard training course in Virginia Beach, Virginia, instructors with a company called Tier 1 Group, which was hired by the military, are seen breaking and cutting off the limbs of live goats with tree trimmers, stabbing the animals, and pulling out their internal organs. Goats moan and kick during the mutilations—signs that they had not received adequate anesthesia

During this cruel exercise, one Tier 1 Group instructor is heard cheerfully whistling on the video as he cuts off goats' legs and a Coast Guard participant callously jokes about writing songs about mutilating the animals. Later in the day, according to the distraught whistleblower who came to PETA, goats were shot in the face with pistols and hacked apart with an ax while still alive. Following official complaints from PETA about this disturbing video footage, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited Tier 1 Group for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act by failing to provide adequate anesthesia to goats who were stabbed and cut into

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Additionally, the Virginia Beach Zoning Administration sent a letter of warning to the owner of the property where the training allegedly took place, notifying him that these exercises are not permitted there and that legal action may be pursued against him if such unauthorized activities are conducted on the land in the future. Cruel exercises like these continue regularly across the U.S. even though most civilian facilities and many military facilities have already replaced animal laboratories with superior lifelike simulators that breathe, bleed, and even "die." The 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, and nearly 80 percent of NATO allies have informed PETA that they do not use animals for military medical training.

Department of Defense regulations actually require that alternatives to animals be used when available, but this policy is not being enforced. 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. A leading surgeon with the U.S. Army even candidly admitted in an internal e-mail obtained by PETA that "there still is no evidence that [training on animals] saves lives." For all these reasons, the Battlefield Excellence through Superior Training (BEST) Practices Act (H.R. 1417), which would phase out the U.S. military's use of live animals in trauma training courses in favor of modern non-animal methods, has been introduced in Congress.

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Please help improve military training and spare the thousands of animals who are tormented each year in these cruel exercises by using the form below to send polite e-mails to U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security officials urging them to take immediate action to comply with federal regulations and completely replace the use of animals in military trauma training with superior non-animal training methods.

(Edit Letter Below) I was shocked by PETA's disturbing new undercover video footage of live goats as they are stabbed and have their limbs broken and cut off with tree trimmers in military trauma training exercises for the U.S. Coast Guard. The footage shows a callous course instructor cheerfully whistling while dismembering goats and Coast Guard members joking about writing a song about mutilating the animals. Following official complaints from PETA about this disturbing video footage, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited Tier 1 Group for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act by failing to provide adequate anesthesia to goats who were stabbed and cut into. Additionally, the Virginia Beach Zoning Administration sent a letter of warning to the owner of the property where the training allegedly took place, notifying him that these exercises are not permitted there and that legal action may be pursued against him if such unauthorized activities are conducted on the land in the future.

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It doesn't take an expert to see that the crude procedures on goats, laid-back atmosphere, and casual attitudes toward life-and-death situations depicted in this video footage bear no resemblance to real battlefield or disaster conditions. What's worse is that these violent and irrelevant exercises continue even though superior, human simulation-based methods are available and even though federal regulations require that these alternatives to animals be used when available. The Army's own Rascon School of Combat Medicine at Fort Campbell does not use animals in its training program and has stated that "[t]raining on [simulators] is more realistic to providing care for a person than training on animals." A leading surgeon with the U.S. Army even candidly admitted in an internal e-mail obtained by PETA that "there still is no evidence that [training on animals] saves lives." The Air Force's Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills and the Navy Trauma Training Center do not use animals to train soldiers, and nearly 80 percent of NATO allies have informed PETA that they do not use animals for military medical training.

Those who are willing to fight for our country need the best possible training. Making them watch as live goats are cut to pieces with hedge trimmers isn't it. I strongly urge you to take immediate action to save as many as 10,000 animals who are killed in military trauma training exercises each year by following federal regulations requiring the use of alternatives to animals when available and ordering that these crude laboratories be replaced with the superior human-patient simulators and other non-animal methods available

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