Ask Japanese University to Halt Cruel Veterinary Training

Please help us to stop more tragedy.


Ask Japanese University to Halt Cruel Veterinary Training
(English page)
https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2423


Veterinary medicine students at Rakuno Gakuen Veterinary University in
Japan practice exsanguination, a cruel and outdated form of slaughter, as
part of their training.

This barbaric process includes administering muscle relaxants or sedatives
to cows?but no anesthetics?in order to immobilize them for gruesome anatomy
trainings. Students cut the animals' necks, then pull out their jugular
veins. They allow the cows to slowly die as the blood is drained from their
bodies while they are still conscious. Five hundred cows a year are killed
in this way at this university alone?a place where students should be
learning to care about and respect animals.

Protests from animal rights organizations and the student body have been
ignored. The university administration needs to hear a strong response from
the public in order to convince it to halt this cruel practice. Please
contact Dr. Hiroyuki Taniyama, principal of Rakuno Gakuen University, and
politely ask him to teach veterinary students compassion, not cruelty.



Japanese page (JAVA Japan Anti-Vivisection Association)
http://www.java-animal.org/jan/090822.htm

(US/ca) Live pigs wounded, euthanized in troop trauma training

More details are emerging about the wounding and later euthanizing of
pigs at a Valley Center avocado grove where local Marines and sailors
are being taught how to perform emergency first aid. Authorities won't
comment on reports some pigs are being shot and others stabbed.

Wounding animals to train troops for battlefield carnage has been
criticized by groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals. The organization has asked the military to halt the practice,
petitioning the Obama administration for an executive order
instituting a ban.

The "live tissue training" exercises provide Navy medical corpsmen,
doctors and frontline troops with the skills needed to save lives by
learning how to staunch bleeding from massive wounds and open blocked
airways, the Marine Corps said.

Pigs are given an anesthetic and pain medication before being wounded
and are euthanized when the procedures are complete. Officials will
not say how the pigs are wounded, but the animal rights organization
claims that pigs used in similar training are stabbed, shot, and in
some cases, poisoned.

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full story:
http://www.northcountytimes.com/articles/2009/07/22/military/z7a745d1e84f5684c882575fb005aa05f.txt

Improving Military Medicine!Action Alert

Monkeys Poisoned, Goats Maimed in Gruesome Military Training





CNN’s Wolf Blitzer calls it a growing controversy. Last month, The Situation Room aired military videos obtained by PCRM through the Freedom of Information Act that reveal the unlawful use of live animals for medical training. But Congress and PCRM are asking the military to switch from these inhumane exercises to nonanimal teaching methods.

The Situation Room’s coverage of PCRM’s campaign to improve military medicine also included an interview with Charles J. Rosciam, M.H.A., a retired captain with the U.S. Navy’s Medical Service Corps. A companion piece was published on CNN.com.

“You can … say it’s not torture, it’s not cruelty ... I don't know of any other word when the end result is that these animals are suffering,” said Capt. Rosciam, a Purple Heart recipient who risked his life to save fallen Marines during the Vietnam War.

The two military training videos reveal this unlawful use of live monkeys in chemical casualty care courses at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland and live goats in combat trauma training courses at Fort Sam Houston in Texas and other military facilities.

In one video, a vervet monkey is given a toxic dose of the drug physostigmine. This simulates the effects of a nerve agent attack. Seizures, diarrhea, and death can result. In another video, an instructor cuts a live goat with a scalpel. This creates traumatic wounds that cause severe bleeding.

Last month, Rep. Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, D-Ga., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, wrote a letter to the secretary and surgeon general of the Army. Rep. Johnson called for an end to the use of live animals in military medical training.

Johnson wrote, “We acknowledge the vital importance of preparing medical personnel with the most educationally effective training methods, and we also are prepared to facilitate a full transition away from the use of animals for the purposes of training.” He also asked other members of Congress to cosign the letter.

His letter followed Capitol Hill briefings earlier in the month. In the House and Senate, Capt. Rosciam, medical simulation experts, and civilian trauma center leaders joined PCRM experts in calling on Congress to end the military’s unnecessary use of animals. They asked that military medical training move to superior nonanimal training methods such as the increased use of medical simulators and embedding military medical personnel in hospitals that see high numbers of trauma cases.

During the briefings, Hope Ferdowsian, M.D., M.P.H., PCRM’s director of research policy, presented an overview of the military’s reliance on live animals to train soldiers and corpsmen. Capt. Rosciam and others also discussed their personal experiences with combat trauma training and opportunities for reform.

“Because animals have significant anatomical and physiological differences from humans, training soldiers on goats and monkeys can cost the lives of America’s fighting men and women,” said Capt. Rosciam. “On the battlefield, a casualty may die in the time it takes a medic to translate the lifesaving techniques they have learned on an animal to a human victim.”

The same day, 17 former military doctors and medics joined PCRM to file a Petition for Enforcement with the Army surgeon general and other military medical leaders. The petition seeks to halt the inhumane practices that violate Department of Defense animal welfare regulations.

“Battlefield medics and others caring for our troops should receive training that is state-of-the- art and human-centered,” says Dr. Ferdowsian. “Training with goats and monkeys is inhumane and offers an inferior educational experience. Treating a goat with an artificially created wound is very different from caring for a human casualty.”

These practices continue despite the existence of superior nonanimal training methods. So PCRM is asking the military to follow the civilian medical community’s lead and move away from animal-based training to thuman-based methods that simulate human anatomy and injuries.

Visit BetterMilitaryMedic ine.org to watch the training videos and learn more about improving military medical training.