|
|
|
Masters of Hard Knocks from the University of Gravity
 
Group: Past PNET Supporter
Last Login: Today @ 2:47 PM
Posts: 2,543,
Visits: 3,193
|
|
Article from CNN.comHONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) -- Animal-rights activists want the United States to stop using animals as subjects to help train its military, calling the medical and trauma exercises cruel and a disservice to the troops. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter Monday to Defense Secretary Robert Gates asking him to replace the use of animals with non-animal methods such as human simulators. In the letter, PETA said the military inflicts gunshot, burn and chemical wounds on monkeys, pigs and goats for training. "This outmoded practice is not only cruel, but is a disservice to the men and women who risk their lives in defense of our country and who deserve the most effective trauma training methods available," wrote Kathy Guillermo, director of the PETA's Laboratory Investigations Department. The Pentagon did not immediately return calls seeking comment.PETA's letter comes 10 days after the group failed to prevent the Army from shooting live pigs and treating their gunshot wounds in a medical trauma exercise at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. The Army said the training is critical to teach soldiers how to manage critically injured patients within the first few hours of their injuries when there are no medics, doctors or facilities nearby. PETA believes the military's Combat Trauma Patient Simulation system, which is being used at other bases such as Camp Pendleton in California and Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, is a more advanced and humane option. PETA noted the Department of Defense's animal welfare policy that states, "Alternative methods to the use of animals must be considered and used if such alternatives produce scientifically valid or equivalent results to attain the research, education, training, and testing objectives." You know what. I'll fully support PETA. I'll support their cause of not using animals for trauma exercises if they want to volunteer to take the animals place. I'd much rather shoot them and treat their wounds then some pig or goat. But then again, I guess the PETA personnel are just animals at heart as well.
"Si Vis Pacum Para Bellum"
If you want peace prepare for war!
|
|
|
|
|
Regular Joe
Group: Registered User
Last Login: Today @ 2:51 PM
Posts: 486,
Visits: 1,147
|
|
JMPMASTR (7/28/2008)
Exactly, which is why SF medics rock and PETA sucks. I learned more "medicine" from assisting our team medics and participating in courses like SFAUC than I ever learned riding with EMS and taking all the Red Cross madatory classes at work. I hope that no one in the COC loses their testicles and decides to back down on this issue cause it will without a doubt cost us lives in combat. Many folks don't know that besides being damn good medics SF Medics also do dentistry, and Vet. medicine too!  Yep. In "third world" countries dental problems are a biggy. The first teeth I pulled were out of a dead goat that had been euthanized after other training. The next time a pulled teeth was at the oral surgery clinic at Ft. Knox when going through the OJT portion of training. When I went to that clinic for my training rotation they put a smock on me so I looked just like one of the docs and the patients didn't know I was in training. My first patient was a private with a heavy southern drawl. The kid's mouth looked like he had been chewing tobbaco from birth. He had two teeth that were so rotten it was going to a job to get them out without crushing the crowns and thus requiring dental surgery to get out the roots. That is why he was at the oral surgery clinic instead of the regular dental clinic. I gave him the shots to numb him up under the watchful eye of the doc. Then the doc said "stay with him while that stuff starts working and I'll be back in a moment." So that kid and I started having a little conversation. He said "I never had a tooth pulled before". I couldn't help it, the opening was too juicy and I told him "Thats alright, I have never pulled a tooth before". The kid thought I was kidding of course. Under the docs supervision I got both teeth out without crushing them so the kid didn't have to go under the knife to have the roots removed. Later, while in Beirut, I pulled at least 25 rotten teeth out of the heads of Lebanese soldiers. Pulling teeth is damned hard work!
De Oppresso Liber
|
|
|
|