Army Shooting Pigs For Medical Training To Treat Gunshot Wounds
Louie didn’t like it, but I told him to shut the fuck up because he’s still a dead pig. Louie’s Uncle Louie (Inset Picture), on the other hand, is fine with it because he is a converted pig who has devoted his life to helping capture and kill Jihadi Piglets everywhere.
Quote from Louie’s Uncle Louie: “Hey, if we gotta shoot a few pigs to save troops lives, I’m all for it. Hell, oink, you can even have the address of some of my relatives.”
Naturally PETA is freaking out…
Oh, and hey, for some really cool nightscope pig hunting footage, check this out.
From Fox News:
HONOLULU — The Army on Friday was holding an exercise involving shooting live pigs and treating the gunshot wounds in training it says is critical to saving soldiers’ lives but which has sparked outcry from animal-rights activists.
The training, held at Schofield Barracks for Iraq-bound troops, is being conducted under a U.S. Department of Agriculture license and the careful supervision of veterinarians and a military Animal Care and Use Committee, said Maj. Derrick Cheng, spokesman for the 25th Infantry Division.
“It’s to teach Army personnel how to manage critically injured patients within the first few hours of their injury,” Cheng said of the medical trauma training.
The soldiers are learning emergency lifesaving skills needed on the battlefield when there are no medics, doctors or facilities nearby, he said.
PETA, however, said there are more advanced and humane options available, including high-tech human simulators. In a letter, PETA urged the Army to end all use of animals, “as the overwhelming majority of North American medical schools have already done.”
“Shooting and maiming pigs is [as] outdated as Civil War rifles,” said Kathy Guillermo, director of PETA’s Laboratory Investigations Department.
The Norfolk, Va.-based group demanded the exercise be halted after it was notified by a “distraught” soldier from the unit, who disclosed a plan to shoot the animals with M4 carbines and M16 rifles.
“There’s absolutely no reason why they have to shoot live pigs,” PETA spokeswoman Holly Beal said.
The bloody exercise, she said, is difficult for soldiers because they sometimes associate the animals with their pet dogs.
Cheng said the exercise is conducted in a controlled environment with the pigs anesthetized the entire time. He had “no doubt whatsoever” in the effectiveness of the instruction, which he called the best option available at the base.
“Those alternative methods just can’t replicate what the troops are going to face when we use live-tissue training,” he said. “What we’re doing is unique to what the soldiers are going to actually experience.”
Cheng didn’t have details about the number of pigs, how they were acquired or the weapons involved in the training.
The soldiers being trained are with the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, which is deploying to Iraq this year.
“We understand [PETA’s] concerns and point of view. At the same, the Army is committed to providing the soldiers with the best training possible,” Cheng said.
Disappointed at the Army’s decision, PETA on Thursday instructed its 2 million members to inundate the Army with calls and e-mails.
“We’re hoping at the 11th hour here that we can have this stopped. We have to hang on to hope,” Beal said.
PETA believes the U.S. military has conducted similar training using pigs and goats at other bases.
(Fox)
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I have to say that I’m glad they don’t use dogs anymore, like they did back in the VN era when my step-Dad was a flight surgeon.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:20 amI’ve raised pigs and hate them with a passion(I still love their succulent flesh!) So I’m pretty much cool with this.
When they say “shooting pigs” do the mean “shooting pigs” or “shooting Jihadis”. Either way its cool.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:23 amPETA (and Orwell):
July 18th, 2008 at 11:24 amFour legs good.
Two legs bad.
I’m confused…
I thought PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals !?!!?
But seriously if these nut jobs don’t want us (Military Medicine) using pigs for live tissue training then they should volunteer their bodies.
I have done several different courses with live tissue and it makes a huge difference in the realism of the training. The first time a young Corpsman or medic does an advanced procedure (cut down, chest tube, cric, etc.) on living tissue shouldn’t be an actual patient.
The high tech simulators are great for a classroom but nobody is taking $200,000+ of equipment into a field environment for an experience that just doesn’t measure up to live tissue.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:33 amLol, some animals are created more equal than others.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:35 amGreat read!
Sounds fun, but do they get to eat the pigs that don’t make it?
“The bloody exercise, she said, is difficult for soldiers because they sometimes associate the animals with their pet dogs.”
>>>>> are we also training Korean soldiers?
July 18th, 2008 at 11:37 amSteve in NC
No the animals are diposed of as medical waste.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:41 amSucks for them….I’d welcome the thought of fresh bacon after training.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:55 ammedical waste? Hell, we’re having some nice thick grilled medical waste with some farver beans and a nice cianti tonight for dinner!
July 18th, 2008 at 12:01 pmthereare enough road accidents that would make it fine for training
July 18th, 2008 at 12:04 pmlol….well not sure how they would taste after we got done with them….hextend IV fluid, quickclot, a few different IV drugs, etc.
July 18th, 2008 at 12:04 pm“hextend IV fluid, quickclot, a few different IV drugs, etc.”
Through a little saline solution in and I’ll call it marinade!!!
July 18th, 2008 at 12:15 pmWhoops!
I meat throw in a little saline sol…
July 18th, 2008 at 12:20 pmCouldn’t find a video with the sound clip I wanted, but this is pretty close.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY5QzAYm5KE
July 18th, 2008 at 12:43 pmGreat Molly!!
“Don’t you have a protest you should be going to?”
“Shouldn’t you be reading Dianetics?”
Too rich! I love it!
July 18th, 2008 at 12:51 pmThis sound like the perfect job for the gitmo detainies.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:19 pmLike I once told some hippie chick trying to get me to sign some petition calling for meat to be banned:
“If you think a cow’s life is the same as a human’s life, how about you take one’s place in a slaughterhouse. The cow will live out its life contentedly turning grass into fertilzer, you’ll have finally proved you have the courage of your convictions (a first for hippies), and the rest of us won’t have to smell you on the subway. Everybody wins.”
She didn’t take it well. First she said, “That’s cannibalism!”
“Didn’t you just say meat is meat? What about all those ads with naked starlets painted with cut lines?”
She didn’t have a comeback to that, just sputtered for a minute and walked away.
On a slow day, if I’m bored and see one of those useful idiots trying to get people to sign petitions for the liberal cause of the hour, fucking with their pitiful excuses for minds is a good way to pass the time. I highly recommend it.
Nice!
July 18th, 2008 at 1:20 pmBS!!!!
July 18th, 2008 at 1:32 pmI served 30 years in the Army Medical Corps. During Vietnam at Ft. Sam Houston, and in the intervening years, specifically the Combat Casualty Course, we used goats and pigs. The nice thing about using a goat, with their long necks you could practice doing a tracheostomy 3 to 5 times.
Every animal is humanly anesthetized. “High tech simulators” are good for some medical procedures, but they can never take the place of doing a combat procedure. I can testify to this first hand! If you have to shoot 1000 goats and pigs to save one GI its well worth it.
As for “The bloody exercise…is difficult for some soldiers because they sometimes associate the animal with their pet dog”, well the first time they use it to save a fellow soldiers life they will get over it.
“Shooting and maiming pigs is [as] outdated as Civil War rifles,” said Kathy Guillermo, director of PETA’s Laboratory Investigations Department.”
I suppose this would be true if they were practicing amputation
July 18th, 2008 at 1:54 pmI am just curious as to why they are using M4s and M16s? You would think they would shooting them with Ak-47s and PK Machine Guns.
JS
July 18th, 2008 at 2:36 pmEh, not thrilled with it, but if it saves lives, it is so worth it. Too bad they can’t eat the leftovers
July 18th, 2008 at 5:28 pm