Member of Congress Calls Out DOD for Skirting Ban on Animal Use in Training
After years of campaigning by PETA, the Department of Defense (DOD) last year banned the use of animals in six military medical training areas on the grounds that “suitable simulation alternatives can replace the use of live animals.” Now, PETA has obtained documents showing that the DOD granted the Air Force a waiver to continue using animals in one of these banned areas—trauma training for certain international personnel that involves stabbing and shooting live animals.
Now, California Congressmember Ted Lieu, a medal-winning lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, has sent an urgent letter to the DOD expressing his concerns about this waiver allowing the use of animals in an area that the DOD itself has determined is not needed as well as the military’s overall use of animals.
“Considering continued advances in technology, I believe it is unacceptable that we continue to engage in courses that are abusive to animals. Preparing Servicemembers for the battlefield and treating animals humanely are simply not mutually exclusive practices.”
—Rep. Ted Lieu
Please join Rep. Lieu and urge Congress to support the Battlefield Excellence Through Superior Training (BEST) Practices Act, which would finally replace the use of animals in all military training with modern, superior, and humane simulators.
