PETA Prompts Coast Guard to Reaffirm Stance Against Animal Mutilation Drills
The U.S. Coast Guard has reaffirmed to PETA that the service has stopped using animals in cruel trauma training drills, euphemistically known as “live tissue training,” in which live goats are stabbed, shot, dismembered, and killed. The move eases concerns raised by PETA over a policy document issued by the military branch this year that appeared to allow these deadly exercises.
In a letter to PETA postmarked June 23, 2025, Acting Commandant Vice Admiral Peter W. Gauthier confirmed the Coast Guard “does NOT, nor does it intend, to conduct live tissue training.”
“We reaffirm that the USCG does NOT, nor does it intend, to conduct live tissue training. The Coast Guard prides itself in ensuring that our members are trained and capable of handling any emergency situation as they conduct their mission critical services to our Nation and commend your organization’s efforts to identify modern and effective training tools to better train surgeons, medical, and first responders to save lives.”
— Vice Admiral Peter W. Gauthier, Acting Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard
In April 2012, PETA released an eyewitness investigation of a Coast Guard trauma training drill. In the video, instructors cut off inadequately sedated goats’ legs with tree trimmers, slice into their abdomens to pull out their organs, and stab them with scalpels as the animals moan and kick. In 2014, the Coast Guard met with PETA and cut its animal use in training drills by 50%.
Then, in 2017, during President Donald J. Trump’s first administration, former Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft told the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee that the use of animals in the agency’s trauma training drills was “abhorrent” and that the service would instead move toward simulation models. “For us it will be the right thing to do to prepare our Coast Guard members who may be deployed to theaters where they may encounter traumatic injuries,” Zukunft said.
Zukunft’s comments were praised in a letter sent by U.S. Rep. Nannett Barragan (D-CA) and former Reps. Tom Marino (R-PA) and Jackie Speier (D-CA). The letter was signed by dozens of other representatives.
PETA sent a letter to Admiral Gauthier thanking him for his reaffirmed commitment to supporting innovative, animal-free trauma training, and we look forward to continued dialogue and collaboration in pursuit of this shared goal throughout the rest of the armed forces.
What You Can Do
The Coast Guard’s compassionate move is great progress for animals, but there’s still more to be done to end the military’s war on animals. Please TAKE ACTION and urge the Department of Defense to ban the use of animals in the Army’s weapon-wounding tests and the Navy’s decompression sickness experiments TODAY.
