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More than 70% of NATO nations—including Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Turkey—have confirmed to PETA that they don't use any animals for military medical training exercises. This is clear evidence that there's no need to harm animals in order to prepare military medical personnel to save lives.
Only seven NATO nations—Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the U.K., and the U.S.—continue to use animals in these barbaric exercises. The Canadian military cuts apart live pigs and poisons them with toxic chemicals, the military of Denmark—with participation from the U.K. Ministry of Defence—subjects live pigs to horrific bullet and blast wounds, the German military inflicts traumatic injuries on live pigs as part of its War Surgery Course, the Dutch military confirmed that it causes pigs to endure "massive abdominal bleeding" and sustain "major injuries to [their] heart and lungs … and neck and head," and the military of Norway shoots live pigs with high-velocity bullets and causes them numerous life-threatening injuries and bone fractures. The U.S. military stabs, shoots, dismembers, burns, and kills thousands of animals each year as well.
PETA has released disturbing, never-before-seen photographs of live pigs hung from a wooden frame and shot with rifles and handguns during a military training course in Denmark.
Lifelike human simulators that "breathe" and "bleed" and can be used in realistic battlefield scenarios have been shown in military and civilian studies to prepare doctors and medics to treat injured humans more effectively than mutilating and killing animals.
These barbaric exercises using animals are also contrary to the spirit of these countries' national laws and regulations as well as likely violating European Union law, which requires the use of non-animal training methods whenever possible.
In 2014, following efforts by PETA, the Norwegian government rejected an application by the country's armed forces to shoot, stab, and kill animals in archaic trauma training exercises given that non-animal methods exist—and we're urging officials to make this decision permanent.
Please take a moment to contact military officials in Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and the U.K. and politely urge them to stop harming and killing animals in military medical training exercises by joining the overwhelming majority of their NATO allies, which use exclusively modern non-animal methods.