Coast Guard defends animal uses in medical training after alleged undercover PETA video

AP GraphicsBank

(AP) RICHMOND, Va. - The Coast Guard is defending its practice of using live animals in its combat medical training after an activist group released a video on Wednesday of a goat's legs being removed with tree trimmers during what it said was training for agency personnel.

Live anesthetized goats have been used in Coast Guard training to treat combat wounds, but the agency could not verify if the video involved its personnel. The courses do involve "live tissue training using live animals," Lt. Cmdr. Jamie C. Frederick, spokesman for the Atlantic Area, wrote in an email.

Frederick was responding after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called on the Pentagon to stop the practice. A congressman also has introduced legislation that would phase out the use of animals by the military for such training.

PETA said the undercover video it released from a whistleblower did show military instructors contracted by the Coast Guard cutting off an anesthetized goat's legs in Virginia Beach. The faces of the participants are blurred and they are not in uniform.

"Animals used in trauma training are supported and monitored by well-trained, experienced veterinary staff to ensure that appropriate anesthesia and analgesia prevent them from experiencing pain or distress," Frederick wrote.

In the video, the goat is still while its legs are cut. Later it makes noise and moves, followed by one of the men calling for another "bump" of anesthesia.

Other branches of the military use similar training on goats and pigs and have defended it as a way to replicate wartime injuries and prepare medics and front-line troops for treating catastrophic injuries in the field of battle.

The Pentagon declined to respond to an AP request for comment on the video.

"Effective combat trauma training and treatment results in lowering the fatality rate of U.S. troops deployed in combat situations," Frederick wrote.

He said the training has also proved invaluable in noncombat situations, such as when Coast Guard members were the first to respond to Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake.

PETA and other animal rights groups, as well as some medical professionals, say the practice is cruel and unnecessary. They promote the use of human simulation models over animals.

"Learning how to apply a tourniquet on a severed goat's leg does not help prepare medical providers to treat an anatomically different human being wounded on the battlefield," according to Dr. Michael P. Murphy, an associate professor of surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves who served two tours of duty in Iraq. He was among the medical professionals who signed PETA's letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta seeking an end to the practice.

The group also asks U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate "apparent serious violations of the Animal Welfare Act."

U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, a California Democrat, has introduced legislation that would phase out such use of animals by the military. He said he's faced fierce opposition from the Department of Defense.

"With these animals, they can break their limbs, or they want to simulate broken bones or a gunshot wound, and it's not clear if they're anesthetized or not," he said. "You're torturing animals when you don't have to."

[skwirllvr]

Seriously people, these Coasties are being prepared to handle the worst situations possible. How can you relate to practicing on a dummy to a combat situation?
This is great training. Those of you who say that you are nurses, etc, how many combat situations have you been in? You are in a controlled environment.
For those of you criticizing the instructors singing, whisteling, making jokes, etc, would it ever cross your mind that they are trying to make light of a situation?
Next time you go to the grocery store, be careful! That meat in the package was once an animal!
Great job Coasties and their instructors!

[carsonheath]

If killing a goat means my life, or my friends lives are going to be saved on the battlefield one day then I don't care how many goats are killed. I can't believe you people are selfish enough to value the life of a goat over another human. PETA disgusts me.

[someinternetdude]

If cadavers are good enough for med school, there good enough for the Coast Guard. Last time I checked I never heard an ER surgeon say "Wait I did this on a goat once" Ridiculous.

[tmn]

The US can do better in training than this. There are more civilized ways to train medics. We ought to be ashamed.

Train medics fully? Yes, absolutely...but NOT like this.

[nakoallen]

This is DISGUSTING and BARBARIC. This completely made me sick this morning on the news and I am now so depressed and angry at the human race that we think it's ok to do these things to our fellow creatures.
IT IS THE YEAR 2012, DON'T WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE A REALISTIC TRAINING DUMMY FOR THESE PROGRAMS WITHOUT BUTCHERING INNOCENT ANIMALS AND CAUSING SUFFERING?!?!?!!?!?! COME ON! :-( :-( :-( :-( :-(
Anyone that could cut off a live goats legs is a sick disgusting messed up person and I would not want them trying to provide me medical care.

[spitbucketbaptismo]

United States Coast Guard - keeping Amerika's coastal waters safe. By hacking up goats.

[coastie1234]

This training was for the Coast Guard members going overseas. They will be in a combat situation. Do some research.

[Molly-Pchr]

Coast Guard and combat training? Really? Well, we are being invaded by illegal aliens.

[coastie1234]

This training was for the Coast Guard members going overseas. They will be in a combat situation. Do some research.

[nbenn514]

If schools/ agencies need to use animals to teach folks how to save human lives, I'm all for it. I doubt the animals are unanesthetized - it would be easier to conduct the procedure if the animal isn't moving. Killing it first wouldn't train folks on how to deal with blood loss. This is not some kind of sick torture ritual - it's research and training. I don't want a young man who is serving this country to lose a limb because someone thinks goats have civil or human rights. They are livestock - not pets.

[pepperbelly]

Exactly! I agree!!

[Molly-Pchr]

I don't think anyone would lose a limb because we use dummies of humans instead of live goats. There is more to this than meets the eye, somebody is supplying these animals, and making a nice profit. Also the amount of anesthestic for a goat would differ from that needed for a larger human. The medic should already know how much anesthetic will be required. Why waste money for anesthetics and pain killers for these "experiments"? I was a scrub nurse and I never saw anyone's legs that resembled the legs of a goat. Use dummies.