Taxpayer Money Wasted on Weapon‑Wounding Tests
- McLean Hospital received more than $16.1 million to poison rats with toxic chemicals that damage the brain. Experimenters repeatedly dosed the rats to cause memory loss and thinking problems before killing them.
- The University of Colorado Denver received more than $1.1 million to poison pigs and seriously injure them in simulated battlefield experiments. Experimenters gave the pigs toxic chemicals that stopped their breathing, broke their leg bones, and drained up to a third of their blood before killing them.
- Johns Hopkins University received nearly $1.5 million to damage the eyes of rabbits and monkeys with lasers. Experimenters aimed laser beams into the animals’ eyes to cause swelling and vision loss, then injected experimental cells before killing and dissecting them.
- The Uniformed Services University received nearly $1.9 million to severely burn mice with high‑dose radiation. Experimenters blasted the mice with X‑rays to cause skin injuries and sores, then injected them with genetically engineered cells.
- Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine received nearly $1.2 million to severely burn pigs. Experimenters cut deep, full‑thickness wounds into the pigs’ skin to mimic combat burns, then tested an experimental wound foam on the injuries.
- Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station received more than $2.4 million to seriously injure mice and rats to cause internal bleeding. Experimenters punctured the animals’ livers and major blood vessels to make them bleed uncontrollably, then injected a synthetic material into the wounds.
- Northwestern University received more than $8.1 million to poison and irradiate mice to damage their lungs. Experimenters exposed the mice to harmful radiation and toxic metals to cause serious lung injuries, gave them various drugs, then killed them and removed their lungs for further study.
- Baylor College of Medicine received more than $1.1 million to damage the eyes of mice in blast‑injury experiments. Experimenters dripped chemicals into the mice’s eyes, attached electrodes to their heads, then killed them and cut out their eyes for study.
- The Methodist Hospital Research Institute received $1.4 million to burn rats with radiation and inject pigs and rats with experimental substances. Experimenters caused severe skin injuries, then removed the animals’ organs and tissues for further study after killing them.
Attention. About-Face.
In 1983, PETA successfully campaigned to shut down a military “wound lab” where dogs, goats, and other animals were shot with high-powered weapons, supposedly to study the biology of human wounds and healing. The Pentagon’s top brass at the time issued the first-ever permanent ban on shooting dogs and cats in wound labs.
The order was bolstered in 2005 when the U.S. Army issued Regulation 40-33, banning the use of dogs, cats, marine animals, and nonhuman primates in tests “conducted for the development of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.”
That changed in 2020, when the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command issued Policy 84, which allowed “[t]he purchase or use of dogs, cats, nonhuman primates, or marine mammals to inflict wounds upon using a weapon for the purpose of conducting medical research, development, testing, or evaluation.”
Forward March. Retreat.
In March 2022, PETA requested all documentation of such weapon-wounding tests on animals. The Army initially said the service kept at least 2,000 such pages of responsive records, then retreated, saying there was only one—an experimental protocol that the military deemed "classified … in the interest of national defense and foreign policy."
In September 2022, PETA filed an appeal seeking a redacted version of this experimentation record, since taxpayers deserve to know what the Army is hiding by refusing to release details about its weapon-wounding experiments on animals. We also sent a letter to the then-Secretary of the Army requesting reinstatement of the previous ban on such tests.
The Internal Politics of War
Wounding animals with weapons and studying the resulting injuries in hopes of helping humans is pointless due to numerous anatomical and physiological differences between species.
In September 2022, the Air Force’s 59th Medical Wing adopted a policy stating that its own experimentation program “does not conduct Research & Development or training protocols involving non-human primates, dogs, cats, or marine mammals”. The Army has yet to follow suit with an explicit ban, leaving room for such tests to resume despite the removal of its previous permissive policy.
Distortions and Secrecy
In October 2022, the Army said that it has no “ongoing” animal-wounding programs and “do[es] not have any studies related to wounding cats or dogs.” This is misleading. Such weapon-wounding testing using dogs, cats, monkeys, or marine animals has recently occurred, as the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command confirmed to PETA the existence of at least one “classified” protocol for this type of experimentation. Additionally, a 60 Minutes report exposed that the military tested a secret directed‑energy weapon on animals, inflicting traumatic brain injuries—underscoring that, whether with high‑powered guns or experimental weapons, animals are still being deliberately harmed in futile attempts to model human injuries.
In 2023, after hearing from PETA, the U.S. Army ended its cruel brain-damaging weapon-wounding experiment on ferrets more than six months ahead of schedule. Ferrets will no longer be bombarded with radio waves in attempts to study Havana syndrome in humans. The cruel test had been conducted at Wayne State University in Michigan and bankrolled with $750,000 in taxpayer dollars.
Although the Army has rolled back its previous policy allowing weapon‑wounding tests on animals, the absence of an explicit ban leaves the door open for their return—an unacceptable situation that should be remedied by permanently ending these tests and investing in advanced, non‑animal methods that better serve human health.