Whistleblower Tip About Live-Goat Mutilation at Fort Campbell Prompts Action From PETA

Group Seeks to End Maiming and Killing of Live Animals in Trauma Training Exercises Amid Recently Introduced Federal Legislation

 For Immediate Release:
January 19, 2010

Contact:
Shalin Gala 757-622-7382

Fort Campbell, Ky. -- After receiving a whistleblower's report revealing that medics at Fort Campbell continue to cut into and kill live goats during trauma training exercises, PETA sent an urgent letter today to base commander Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell questioning the facility's practice of maiming animals in apparent violation of Department of Defense policy.

PETA initially exposed the maiming and killing of live animals at Fort Campbell--and at 16 other U.S. military bases and four private contract facilities--in early 2009 and asked the commander of each site, as well as the Department of Defense, to stop using live animals in light of the fact that modern and superior non-animal training methods are available. A recent report from within the base confirmed that medics at Fort Campbell continue to mutilate and kill goats in training exercises even though non-animal training methods are available at the base and are used at Fort Campbell's own Alfred V. Rascon School of Combat Medicine.

"Cutting open and maiming goats in training exercises is archaic and does a disservice to our military personnel," says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "Not only are these deadly practices cruel, they also leave soldiers underprepared for treating their wounded comrades on the battlefield."

The exercises at Fort Campbell may violate the Department of Defense's own animal welfare regulation, which requires the use of non-animal methods when such methods are available. Other military installations--such as the Air Force Expeditionary Medical Skills Institute's Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills and the Navy Trauma Training Center--do not perform these archaic and cruel exercises on animals. Members of the House of Representatives have recently introduced federal legislation--the BEST Practices Act, or H.R. 4269--that would phase out the use of animals in military medical training by 2013 and substitute high-tech alternatives such as the Army's Combat Trauma Patient Simulator.

PETA's letter to Fort Campbell base commander Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA's Web site PETA.org/trauma.