MILITARY USES LIVE GOATS FOR "WOUND
TRAINING":
The HSUS has received information from credible sources that the U.S. Army
will be injuring and then killing live goats as part of a training program
for its medics in treating battle wounds. KUSA-TV, the Colorado Springs
Gazette, and other media outlets have confirmed that the goats will be used
to simulate battle wounds and injuries. After they are treated by medics,
the goats will be killed.
The use of goats to train for battle wound treatment is inadvisable for the
same reasons the public opposed shooting dogs for military experiments
twenty years ago. Not only are such exercises inhumane, they are of
questionable relevance because the anatomy of humans is markedly different
from that of goats and conditions on the battlefield are not easily
replicated. Any data garnered from these trainings may be misleading.
Because more realistic and humane alternatives exist, such as the TraumaMan®
System (a simulator of the human body used for surgical training) or
emergency rooms in metropolitan areas, the Army's crude goat injury and
killing exercises are all the more objectionable.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Let Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld know that military training should
use the most advanced techniques, rather than such an archaic approach that
needlessly wounds and kills animals. Ask him to instead adopt reasonable,
humane alternatives.
The Honorable Donald H. Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301
Fax 703-697-9080
Phone 703-692-7100
To send an email, go to
http://www.defenselink.mil
ACTION NEEDED TO STOP NEW DOLPHIN FACILITY:
Animal protection activists on the island of St. Maarten (in the Caribbean)
are rallying to stop the construction of a new captive dolphin facility. The
new facility is being proposed as a money-making vehicle to bolster the
tourism industry and, in part, to help St. Maarten compete with other
Caribbean islands that have captive dolphin facilities.
The planned captive dolphin facility is a bad idea for several reasons.
First, for an animal whose natural range expands over hundreds of miles,
confinement in a tiny enclosure is inherently cruel. The physical and
emotional stress of capture and captivity cause a six-fold increase in the
mortality of wild-caught dolphins in their first month of captivity. Second,
"swim-with-the-dolphins" facilities, such as the type planned for St.
Maarten, pose a safety risk to human participants. In recent years, the
number of people injured by seemingly friendly dolphins has risen as the
popularity of these facilities has increased.
Finally, the island of St. Maarten is located in a hurricane zone, and
violent storms in the area are commonplace. Such circumstances pose an
unacceptable risk to animals being held in any type of captive facility.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Contact St. Maarten's Lt. Governor and tell him that building a captive
dolphin facility on St. Maarten would be both inhumane and a blemish on the
image of the island. Let him know that captive wildlife facilities will
keep St. Maarten from your future travel plans.
The Honorable Franklyn Richards
email: cabgov@sintmaarten.net
Fax: 011+ 599 542 4172
NEW WEBSITE FOR ANTI-FUR CAMPAIGNERS:
Just in time for the approach of fall and cold-weather fashions, a new
anti-fur website has been created for activists concerned about the killing
of animals for fashion. To get all the facts about the animals and methods
used to obtain fur, current news, merchandise, materials, alerts and
grassroots activist resources to be effective in campaigning against fur, go
to
http://furfreeaction.org/
THANK YOU FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR
ANIMALS --- TODAY!!
To receive directly, call 202-955-3668 or email
humanelines@hsus.org For more
information on legislation, how to find your legislators, or past
HUMANElines, go to
http://www.hsus.org/ or
http://www.fund.org/ |