American soldiers are required to kill docile animals during military “survival skills” training courses and are instructed to use their bare hands, rocks, or blunt instruments on chickens, rabbits, goats, and snakes as part of “emergency food procurement exercises.” Reports reveal that animals die a slow and agonizing death after being bludgeoned, strangled, or decapitated. An Army course manual instructs soldiers to kill a chicken “by placing its head under a strong stick, placing both your feet on either end of the stick ... and pulling vigorously until its head is pulled off.” Another Army manual says, “You can club small mammals or step on them.”

Department of the Air Force Instructor Guide: Basic Combat Survival Training Field Training INSTRUCTIONAL AIDS: 1. Club to kill animal 2. Knife 3. 550 cord (to suspend animal and tie live animal to tree) 4. Containers/utensils for cooking

The U.S. Army, Air Force, and Marines have confirmed that at least six military courses currently engage in these exercises year-round, and there have been many reports of others. Government documents show that two Air Force bases alone use more than 1,500 rabbits each year, at a cost of more than $10,000.¹ According to a 1997 Department of Defense (DoD) report, the Air Force kills more rabbits in its “survival skills” courses than does the entire DoD in all its research facilities combined.² Estimates reveal that well over 10,000 animals are used every year in military food procurement exercises.

Typically, soldiers either carry their own animals in a backpack for several days before killing them or the animals are taken by vehicle into the woods, where they are “liberated” and then “recaptured,” says Sergeant Fredrickson of Dugway Proving Ground. Eyewitness accounts describe soldiers who are “required to stroke the rabbit to calm it, then bash it on the head ... the rabbits don’t always die with the first blow.”

The military claims that these exercises are a necessary part of troop preparation. Major Tammy Miracle of the Massachusetts National Guard claims that killing docile animals “prepare[s] a soldier to fight in today’s modern battlefield.” She admits that although “this type of training may seem unusual ... readiness remains to be the Army Guard’s overarching priority.”

These exercises, however, fail to teach relevant skills to soldiers who may one day experience life-threatening adverse conditions. It is pointless for a soldier to practice killing small domestic mammals and birds, considering that in a real-life survival experience, few would have trouble killing such an animal if survival depended on it. After all, soldiers do not practice by killing other humans in order to be effective in combat situations. In the past, there have been occasions when such exercises were canceled after receiving national exposure³—yet thousands of animals continue to suffer each year on military bases that pursue this training.

Please contact your senators and representative and request that they introduce language into this year’s Defense Appropriations Bill that explicitly prohibits the use of your taxpayer dollars to purchase live animals for military “survival skills training.” If you don’t know their contact information, please call the Congressional Switchboard at 202-225-3121, provide your state or zip code, and ask to be transferred to their offices or click here to obtain the information through a web page.

 

¹ Fairchild Air Force Base, WA 99011-8648; United States Air Force Academy, CO 80840-6260
² “Department of Defense Animal Care and Use Programs 1997”
³ United States Army Dugway Proving Ground; Massachusetts Army National Guard