Two combat medics hold the rear leg of an unconscious goat . . . [the instructor] places a tree trimmer over the joint in the leg, closes it, applies pressure, and a ‘crack’ echoes inside the dimly lit tent . . .

As described in this gruesome eyewitness account, the U.S. military is using live animals to teach medical procedures—despite the existence of nonanimal teaching methods.

Two military training videos recently obtained by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine through the Freedom of Information Act reveal the unlawful use of live monkeys and goats in chemical casualty courses and combat trauma training.

The military's trauma training courses subject more than 8,500 goats and pigs a year to severe injuries, including stab wounds, gunshot wounds, burns, and amputations at Fort Sam Houston, Fort Bragg, and other facilities. In chemical casualty care training courses at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, vervet monkeys are given a toxic dose of the drug physostigmine, which can induce seizures, breathing difficulty, and death.

Using animals in military medical courses is not only cruel and archaic—it constitutes a violation of the Department of Defense’s own joint regulation on animal welfare, which states that alternatives must be considered and used if available. The regulation also explicitly prohibits inflicting wounds on nonhuman primates.

Alternatives could completely replace the use of animals in these courses. Readily available human-centered training methods—including rotations in civilian trauma centers and the use of medical simulators—allow for superior education and preparation of military personnel to treat traumatic injuries sustained by America’s fighting men and women.

Both as a matter of soldier readiness and humane medical practice, the U.S. military must modernize its medical teaching methods and move away from using animals.

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