PETA Hits DoD Use of Pigs in Training

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- The base is among several military installations that have been singled out by PETA for using live animals when training medics for traumatic combat injuries.

Through reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has confirmed that Hurlburt Field operated as a temporary site for training that simulated combat injuries on pigs.

"Typically, these exercises involve killing, stabbing and shooting these animals," said Shalin Gala, senior researcher at PETA.

The training has its defenders.

"I would much rather that an animal be used to do this than an animal end up as a pork chop in a supermarket," said John Hagmann, medical director and owner of Operational and Emergency Medical Support Group, a civilian organization that trains medics at Hurlburt and provides the pigs.

Hurlburt is used as a temporary training site about once a year.

Officials at Hurlburt said the Operational and Emergency Medical Skills Course does use animals to train medics.

"Pigs have on rare occasions been used to train special operations medics," said Dr. Mark Ervin, operational medicine division chief at Hurlburt.

That's twice in the last two years. Ervin said the training was open only to 10 percent of the 300 to 400 medics trained each year at Hurlburt.

Most of the medics are trained in Hurlburt's simulation lab.

"We have a very aggressive and actually one of the best simulation labs in the Air Force," said Ervin.

The advanced labs are partially a cause for PETA's complaint.

"We're filing these complaints because the Department of Defense requires use of alternatives when they are available," said Gala. "If these programs aren't using any animals, we're asking why are other programs such as Hurlburt's program and other Army programs using animals."

"In short, to save lives," Ervin answered. "We're very sensitive to ensure that we only use live models if we cannot adequately simulate the type of injuries we want them (medics) to learn how to manage on a human patient."

Animals were injured to treat massive traumas to vital organs such as the liver, bowels, spleen and stomach. Machines cannot simulate such wounds seen on a battlefield, said Ervin.

"For the first time in the history of U.S. military, we're actually saving lives long before they get to the surgeons because our people are actually experienced and trained in doing that," Hagmann added.

Gala contended technology can help do that.

"If we really are wanting to give our troops the best medical care possible, it really is imperative upon the Army and military to use the most sophisticated technology today and that is clearly not by using animals."

Hagmann disagreed.

"Not a single one of these references who says simulators are the same as live-tissue training are people who actually have to go to war and do this," he said. "They are all the people sitting on their couch saying that simulators are just as good. Well, the people that are actually doing it all acknowledge that they're not."

"As we've evolved, we've realized we can't get the same competence without live-tissue training," Hagmann said. "Would you ever give someone a driving license who has only driven a simulator?"

Similar training is used at bases throughout the military, he added.

PETA's campaign focuses on 17 military bases including Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort Irwin in California, Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Schofield Barracks in Hawaii and Fort Wainright in Alaska.

Former Navy medic Victor Everett of Crestview received his live-tissue training from the FBI at Camp Lejeune.

"It was the best training anybody could ever receive," he said. "It definitely saved lives. If you've seen something similar, it gives you the ability to react quick instead of stopping and being in shock."

The Army, according to a report in The Virginian-Pilot, said that while it does use non-animal methods to train military medics, only the responses from a "live trauma patient" teach medics to make quick decisions that can save soldiers' lives.

"Until there are validated non-animal alternatives that can accurately mimic all of the attributes and nuances that a live patient can deliver, we will continue to use anesthetized animals in order to provide the best trauma training for the life-sustaining care of soldiers facing death or complex battle injuries," Maj. Jimmie E. Cummings Jr., an Army spokesman, told the paper in an e-mail.

Gala said he has gotten responses from some military bases.

"We've received letters from two commanders so far, saying they will take it under investigation," said Gala.

Officials at Hurlburt say they have not read or responded to the complaint. It was sent to Col. Marshall B. Webb, former 1st Special Operations Wing commander and current special assistant to the commander at Air Force Special Operations Command headquarters at Hurlburt.

Hagmann added that he has worked with medics who have been to the battlefield without his training.

"So many of them are upset because they've already been to combat. They've already seen one of their guys die or severely wounded," he said. "Now they realize they could've done something more."