Coast Guard reduces use of live animals in training

[unhappycamper]

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/02/coast-guard-reduces-use-live-animals-training

Coast Guard reduces use of live animals in training
By Brock Vergakis
The Associated Press
© February 14, 2014

NORFOLK

The Coast Guard won't use as many live animals for its combat medical training after an animal rights group showed a goat's legs being removed with tree trimmers.

The agency said the video led to a review of its policies and the Coast Guard came to the decision that it could reduce by half the number of animals it uses. The Coast Guard said this week it can do that by only requiring personnel deploying in support of the Defense Department to train with them.

In 2012, Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals obtained a video of the live tissue training that showed the goats as well as other traumas. The goats were intentionally injured so the students could treat injuries like those they might see while in Iraq and in the Persian Gulf, according to the Coast Guard. The training was held in Virginia Beach for Coast Guardsmen preparing to deploy to Iraq.

PETA was livid about how the animals were treated, saying in a letter to the Homeland Security Department that "nothing about the training session depicted in the video even gives the illusion of a battlefield casualty situation."