“The images appear to show the live animals strung up as targets moments before being shot during a course at Nato’s training facilities in Jaegerspris, Denmark,” dailyexpress.co.uk reports. “The pigs are shot by marksmen to replicate battlefield wounds so military medical staff including British Army doctors can train in emergency surgery. The so-called Operation Danish Bacon has been described as ‘impossible to justify medically, ethically and educationally’ by animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) said.” Outed by the animal lovers, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) did their best . . .
A spokeswoman for the MOD said: “Our military surgeons undertake vital training in Denmark where they learn specialist trauma treatment skills that save lives on the battlefield.
“All animals used in medical training are anaesthetised before they are treated and by participating in the Danish led exercises twice a year rather than conducting our own, we minimise the overall number of animals used.”
Anesthetized before they’re shot or after? Anyway, responding to public outcry, Her Majesty’s Government stopped the porcine EMT training back in ’89. And then reinstated it on the DL after discovering “no equally effective alternative.” PETA begs to differ.
A Peta spokesman said: “Eighty per cent of Nato allies have already ended the cruel use of animals in archaic military medical training exercises.
“Instead of shooting, stabbing, and blowing up animals, military personnel in these nations are trained to treat traumatic injuries using life-like human-patient simulators, such as the state-of-the-art Caesar military simulator [above].”
I wonder if Caesar ate bacon. [h/t AS]