PETA Petition to Stop Animal Torture at Defense Department

Hah! Good luck! But it certainly raised my awareness that animals are used in military trauma-training exercises.

Days after President Barack Obama signed an executive order banning torture during military interrogations, PETA wrote to the president calling for the ban of another form of military torture: trauma and chemical-casualty training exercises conducted on animals.

Thousands of live animals are shot, stabbed, dismembered, burned, and poisoned every year in Department of Defense (DoD) training exercises designed to train medics and infantry in how to treat various human battlefield injuries. PETA is asking President Obama to issue an executive order requiring the DoD to replace animals with non-animal methods. These methods are readily available and already in use at several military installations. The non-animal methods include rotations in military trauma hospitals and the use of the DoD's own Combat Trauma Patient Simulator.

Please help animals who suffer for military training by asking President Obama to extend his ban on torture to include animals used in military trauma-training exercises.

Please send a polite e-mail to your Congressional representative asking him or her to urge President Obama to issue an executive order requiring the DoD to replace the use of animals in trauma and chemical-casualty training exercises with available non-animal methods.