The U.S Army continues to shoot live pigs as part of its medical trauma exercise at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii despite protests from animal rights groups.
Activists from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
continued to flood the U.S. Army with calls and emails to stop shooting live pigs for medical drills. The army says the exercise is critical in saving the life of wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The U.S. Army refused to give the details of the exercise that was carried out in Hawaii. But a Navy medic
described a similar training exercise that was carried out in 2006.
They shot the pig 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.
PETA has been demanding the army to stop using live pigs in such drills as more advanced and humane options such as Combat Trauma Patient Simulation system - a high-tech human simulator - are available. Kathy Guillermo, director of the PETA's Laboratory Investigations Department
said.
This outmoded practice is not only cruel, but is a disservice to the men and women who risk their lives in defense of our country and who deserve the most effective trauma training methods available.
Maj Derrick Cheng, spokesman of the army division which carried out the exercise said:
This is the best option for helping soldiers learn emergency lifesaving skills, needed on the field when no doctors or medical facilities are nearby. Those alternative methods just can't replicate what the troops are going to face when we use live-tissue training.
