When the military teaches personnel about emergency medical procedures, it uses a highly controversial teaching method. The courses involve subjecting thousands of animals to stab wounds, burns, and other injuries.

The PCRM Legislative Fund is promoting a bill that would improve military medical training by replacing these kinds of animal laboratories. The Battlefield Excellence through Superior Training (BEST) Practices Act, H.R. 4269, would end the Department of Defense’s use of live pigs, goats, and monkeys in combat trauma and chemical casualty care courses.

The BEST Practices Act would require the military to transition to ethical and educationally superior human-based methods, including medical simulators, which are widely used in civilian medical centers to teach trauma management. H.R. 4269 has two new co-sponsors—Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., and Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Calif.