MARCH 22 CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Hill Briefing Offers Hands-On Demonstration of Groundbreaking Combat Trauma Training Devices >

GET INVOLVED: If you serve in the military and would like to learn more or get involved, contact us at rmerkley@pcrm.org.

Combat Trauma Training

As the U.S. military fights two wars, it is essential that the medical training our service members receive is the best that is available. Unfortunately, despite making impressive strides in the development and utilization of training and troop protection methods, the U.S. military is still relying on the use of goats and pigs to teach medical procedures.

Currently, the U.S. military uses live animals in combat trauma training. In some of these courses:

• The legs of live goats are amputated one by one to cause severe hemorrhaging.

• Live pigs have their throats cut open to create a surgical airway.

• Plastic tubes are inserted between the ribs of pigs and into the chest cavity.

Replacing the use of goats and pigs in combat trauma training courses is imperative to ensure that our troops receive the most effective training before deploying to combat zones. Ensuring that trauma education and training are most effective for treating human injuries requires phasing in a combination of human-based training methods.

Luckily, Congress realizes change must happen. In 2009, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chair of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, introduced legislation that would phase in human-based training methods and replace the current use of live animals in these military medical training courses.

Both as a matter of troop readiness and humane medical practice, the U.S. military must modernize its medical teaching methods and phase in the use human-based methods in place of live animals.