Janet Napolitano Called Out for Mutilation of Animals by Military

Group Will Converge on Secretary's Speaking Engagement With Video Footage of Goats' Legs Cut Off With Tree Trimmers by Coast Guard 

For Immediate Release:
June 25, 2012

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382 

Orlando, Flo. -- Wearing goat masks and holding signs that read, "Secretary Napolitano: End Military Animal Labs," PETA members will gather outside the Buena Vista Palace Hotel as Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano prepares to address the 13^th Annual Leadership Training Conference inside. The activists will also screen recently leaked video footage showing a trauma training course for members of the Coast Guard—which Napolitano oversees at the Department of Homeland Security—in which live goats have their legs cut off with tree trimmers and their internal organs pulled out as they moan and kick. The action is part of PETA's campaign calling on the U.S. military to replace archaic and cruel animal laboratories with superior, humane, simulation-based training methods widely in use around the world, including in the 22 of 28 NATO countries that do not use any animals for military medical training.

When:   Tuesday, June 26, 11:30 a.m.

Where:  Intersection of S. Apopka Vineland Road and Hotel Plaza Boulevard (near McDonald's in the Crossroads Shopping Plaza), Orlando

"The military must stop ignoring its own prohibition against using animals when non-animal methods are available, as they are in this case," says PETA Vice President Kathy Guillermo. "Our servicemembers deserve the best training possible—and that means teaching them with lifelike human-patient simulators, not having them stab and dismember moaning, kicking goats."

For more information, please visit PETA's military trauma training website.