The US Army is moving ahead with plans to shoot live pigs and treat their gunshot wounds in a medical trauma exercise for soldiers destined to serve in Iraq.

The army says that the exercise is critical to saving the lives of wounded soldiers. Animal rights activists have criticised the exercise as cruel and outdated.

Major Derrick Cheng, spokesman for the 25th Infantry Division, said that the training was being conducted under a US Department of Agriculture licence and the careful supervision of veterinarians and the military Animal Care and Use Committee. “It’s to teach army personnel how to manage critically injured patients within the first few hours of their injury,” he said, adding that soldiers were learning emergency life-saving skills needed on the battlefield when there were no medics, doctors or facility near by.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) said that there were more advanced and humane options available, including high-tech human simulators. In a letter, it urged the army to end all use of animals “as the overwhelming majority of North American medical schools have already done”. It added: “Shooting and maiming pigs is outdated as Civil War rifles.” (AP)

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