October, 26 2009, 03:34pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Amanda Schinke 757-622-7382
Tom Morello, Chuck D, and Serj Tankian Call for End to Army's Cruel Trauma Exercises on Animals
LOS ANGELES
The U.S. Army is shooting, burning, and poisoning goats, pigs, and
monkeys in barbaric field trauma exercises, prompting some of the
biggest names in music to join peta2's campaign to end the cruel and
archaic procedures. A new peta2 petition calling for an end to the
Army's animal abuse has been signed by Tom Morello,
the Grammy-winning guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave,
and Street Sweeper Social Club; poet and System of a Down
singer-songwriter Serj Tankian; Fletcher Dragge, a founding member of the influential skate-punk band Pennywise; hip-hop legend and Public Enemy founding member Chuck D; and members of punk rock band Anti-Flag, which was founded by Justin Sane and Pat Thetic.
"Soldiers tell us that they don't want to chop off goats' legs or
stab pigs, but the military is requiring them to do it," says PETA
Director Dan Shannon. "With the abundance of modern, humane trauma
training methods--such as high-tech human simulators and rotations in
civilian trauma centers--there is no need to add these animals to the
list of casualties of war."
Every year, thousands of live goats and pigs are shot, stabbed,
burned, and have their limbs cut off, and monkeys are chemically
poisoned in military trauma training exercises, even though superior
non-animal methods could replace the use of animals today. The Air
Force Expeditionary Medical Skills Institute and the Navy Trauma
Training Center do not use animals in their courses, and military regulations state that non-animal methods must be used whenever they are available.
For more information, please visit peta2.com. To see photos of animals used in military trauma training exercises, please visit PETA.org/trauma.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), with more than 2.0 million members and supporters, is the largest animal rights organization in the world. PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns.
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