The U.S. is one of six NATO countries that continue to use animals for military training despite modern trauma-training technology being widely available, according to a new international survey.
Of the 28 NATO countries, 6 of them – Canada, Denmark, Norway, Poland, the U.K., and the U.S.— reported using animals in invasive and often deadly procedures on animals for military training.
The U.S. Army continues to shoot, slice and kill more than 10,000 live animals in trauma-training exercises practice despite a letter from legislators in 2009 that pointed out that doing so defies a joint U.S. Army regulation dating back to 2005, according to a report by Melissa Suran of the Medill News Service.
Modern simulators that breathe and bleed are better than animal laboratories at preparing doctors and medics for work in the field, according to the study.
The other 22 NATO countries— Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Turkey — confirmed that they don't use animals in military medical training.
The survey was carried out by researchers at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in collaboration with current and former military medical personnel.
The study was published in the August 2012 issue of Military Medicine, the journal of the Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.
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