James Santos:
Thousands of live goats and pigs animals are cut apart, shot, and blown up in U.S. military training drills every year even though humane methods like human-patient simulators that provide more effective and realistic training are available and military regulations require that alternatives to animals be used whenever they exist.
As a physician and retired Navy medical officer, I know what it takes to save the lives of soldiers and civilians. And I can say as someone who has participated in animal laboratories that they did not improve my ability to treat humans and that the skills needed to treat traumatic injuries are best acquired without hurting any animals.
So I was shocked and disappointed to see this newly released hidden-camera video footage of live goats who had their limbs chopped off during a recent U.S. military training exercise (warning: graphic footage).