Seizures, breathing difficulty, and possible death: The vervet monkeys used in the military’s chemical casualty care training experience horrific symptoms. The animals are given a toxic dose of the drug physostigmine in an exercise designed to simulate the effects of a nerve agent attack. The exercise—which takes place at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland—is demonstrated in the video below obtained by PCRM through the Freedom of Information Act. Using monkeys in this exercise is profoundly inhumane, and it also distracts military personnel from the real-world, clinically valid training they need to treat chemical casualties.
Combat Trauma Training on Goats
An instructor cuts a live goat with a scalpel to create traumatic wounds in the military video below, obtained by PCRM through the Freedom of Information Act. The use of goats and pigs for combat trauma training is suboptimal due to, among other issues, the animals’ anatomical and physiological differences from humans. Compared with humans, goats and pigs have smaller torsos and limbs, thicker skin, and important differences in anatomy of the head and neck, internal organs, rib cage, blood vessels, and airway. Many of these differences are demonstrated in this film for the Army Medical Departments Tactical Combat Medical Care course. The instructor in the training film repeatedly references significant differences between training on live goats and human casualties.
Tube Thoracostomy with Chest Tube Insertion
Combat Application Tourniquet and Pressure Dressing
