Friday, Aug 16, 2013
Guard plans to maim animals for medic training
By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
A Florida National Guard medical company plans to shoot, stab, dismember and disembowel live pigs and goats in Tampa today to prove something it already knows — that using medical simulators is better than maiming animals.
The unit is the 256th Area Medical Support Company, and the training is until Monday.
According to a Guard statement released Thursday, “This study is funded by a Department of Defense grant to the University of South Florida’s Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation. It will study hemorrhaging control, airway management and emergency medical skills.”
After a whistle-blower exposed the study to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA announced the study as unnecessary and cruel.
The organization further asked Adjutant General Emmitt “Buddy” Titshaw to cancel the activity and follow Department of Defense policies requiring the use of nonanimal training methods when available.
However, the Guard indicated through its statements that the study would proceed as planned.
Justin Goodman, director of PETA’s Laboratory Investigations Department, said medical simulation is the future of military medical training so “no more animals need to be stabbed, mutilated or shot to make this point.”
When questioned about the study, the St. Augustine-based Guard would not speak for the record but instead released a second prepared statement.
“The Florida National Guard appreciates and values the input of our Florida citizens and members of advocacy organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals who feel strongly about this matter,” the statement said. “We are pleased to be supportive of the process that will validate viable alternatives to LTT for our combat medics.”
LTT stands for “live trauma training.”
PETA also re-released an undercover video of a similar training program in Virginia Beach obtained last year showing Coast Guard medics using tree branch trimmers to cut off the legs of goats while the animals were still alive.
In the short film, Coast Guard medics worked with personnel from the private military contractor Tier 1 Group, a Crawfordville, Ark., company formerly known as Aggressive Training Solutions. Tier 1 is owned by Cerebus Capital Management, which also owns Remington Arms, Bushmaster Firearms International and DPMS Panther Arms.
On camera, medics are heard joking about their work.
One said, “Gotta write a song about cutting the limbs off goats.”
Another medic repeatedly stabs a goat with a scalpel and pulls out its internal organs.
Goodman said military and civilian studies have proven that simulators better prepare medics and doctors to perform life-saving trauma.
“That many U.S. military facilities and 80 percent of our NATO allies already use exclusively nonanimal simulation methods to train their personnel is further evidence that the switch (to simulators) could be made tomorrow without subjecting more animals to harm and death,” he said.
In the video, director Oliver Stone, speaking for PETA, said the nation’s military needs the best medical care possible, but doesn’t need to kill 10,000 animals a year to accomplish that.
He called the practice “barbaric.”
“We don’t need to cut animals with scalpels, shoot them in the face or hack them with an axe. Those are nothing like real battle wounds,” Stone said. “This is the 21st-century. There are more humane ways.”
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