Major Victory! Congress Bans Shooting Animals in Live-Fire Military Trauma Training

For Immediate Release:
December 18, 2025

Contact:
Brandi Pharris 202-483-7382

In a historic win for animals, Congress today banned all live-fire trauma training on animals throughout the Department of War, sparing thousands of animals each year from being shot, grievously wounded, and killed for outdated military training exercises. The measure was championed by Representative Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.-16), who led the effort to secure this critical reform.

The ban follows decades of PETA’s work exposing the mutilation and killing of animals during military trauma drills. It marks a historic shift toward state-of-the-art, human-relevant simulation technology already embraced by the U.S. Coast Guard and leading medical experts.

“PETA is grateful to Representative Buchanan, who introduced the language, to Congress and to the Trump administration for this major, lifesaving win for animals,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA celebrates this historic milestone, which is a huge step toward animal-free simulation training that spares goats, pigs, and other animals from excruciating violence and bloody deaths.”

PETA is specifically urging officials to take immediate action to ban the use of animals in Navy-funded decompression sickness and oxygen toxicity tests.

PETA has led the effort to end live tissue training. In 2012, PETA released an eyewitness investigation into the gruesome procedures. In the video, instructors cut off inadequately sedated goats’ legs with tree trimmers, cut into their abdomens, and pull out their organs, and stab them with scalpels as they moan and kick. Working with members of Congress, PETA persuaded the Coast Guard to become the first branch of the military to ban the use of all animals for trauma training. In 2017, PETA’s efforts led to the introduction of the bipartisan “Battlefield Excellence through Superior Training (BEST) Practices Act,” which would require replacing animals with more effective human simulation models.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.