[Ed. Note: Ask Congress to End the Military's War on Animals, Support H.R. 4269, the BEST Practices Act - Action Alert 10/7/10.]
Animals in Military Service
Animals have been used in military service to their country for centuries.
Some have served in active combat, including elephants, camels, pigeons, and
horses. Others, including pigs, oxen, dogs, mules, horses, and camels, have been
used to transport troops and supplies. Not one of these animals enlisted.
Animals have also been used in military research laboratories to test
conventional, biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. They have been
subjected to injuries and numerous surgeries to determine the effects of weapon
damage on a living body.
War weaponry exists for one reason and one reason only—so that one human can
kill another. In the process of developing these weapons and learning how to
treat those who are injured by them, we have enlisted a wide variety of animals
in the deadly pursuit of a better bullet.
Animals as Test Subjects for War Weapons
Millions of taxpayer dollars are used to fund animal experiments aimed at
developing the newest weapons, combating bioterrorism, and studying infectious
disease control. Animals of choice are guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, dogs, rats,
sheep, pigs, boars, and monkeys. Pigs are particularly popular choices,
especially for surgical experimentation.
In the United States, there are dozens of Department of Defense (DoD)
laboratories and laboratories contracted by DoD worldwide conducting animal
experiments. In DoD facilities alone, 350,000 primates, birds, ferrets, dogs,
pigs, goats, sheep, rabbits, cats, mice, marine mammals, and other animals are
subjected to an array of lethal experiments. The number of animals subjected to
tests in contract facilities is not known.
Animals are use in a wide variety of tests. They are subjected to
irradiation, burnings, and bombings. They are used to test chemicals both
internally and on their skin. They are subjected to a wide variety of blasts,
including nuclear blasts, to see what types of injuries occur; are dosed with
irritants and bacterial toxins to see how long it takes them to become ill or
die; and are studied for physiological shock due to a variety of concussive
wounds. They are subjected to various toxic gases, including nerve and riot gas,
and to lasers and high power microwaves. They are used in decompression
research. They are strapped into chairs to simulate flight and what happens to
them under certain flight situations. Some of the tests are to determine how
much blood loss can occur before an animal dies.
Thousands of animals are infected with the Ebola, dengue fever, tick-borne
encephalitis, and anthrax, to mention a few. Victims of some of these viruses
used in biological warfare hemorrhage internally, become paralyzed, psychotic,
and go into terminal shock. Their organs, including their eyeballs, bleed; they
Some of the animals are anesthetized for these tests, and then when conscious
are used again. Many animals are not anesthetized during their experiments. Most
are killed either during the experiment or are euthanized later. The majority of
animals used in these laboratories are purpose-bred for specific types of
Substitutes for Animals in Research
There is much duplication of tests, tests that don’t extrapolate to human
beings and are, therefore, unreliable. For instance, an antidote for a nerve gas
might prove effective in rats and mice yet fail when tested on guinea pigs and
monkeys. Therefore, test results using nonhuman animals are suspect. Tests done
on human tissue and organs are far more likely to provide the results scientists
need to protect the human animal from some of these deadly weapons of war.
There are additional nonanimal research and training methods, including the
Combat Trauma Patient Simulation system, TraumaMan system, SimMan, and the
“living” cadaver model. Advances in medical research now show that animal
testing in general is unnecessary and has, in some cases, proved misleading when
extrapolating data to human beings. Such advances include, in addition to human
tissue and organ use, computer-based models and human volunteer studies.
Animals in Combat
During World War II, dogs had explosives strapped to their bodies. Pigeons
were trained to guide bombs and carry messages. Dogs were used to attack horses
causing rider and horse to fall. Dogs were also trained to attack elephants who
would stampede often killing other elephants and their riders in the process.
Today, military working dogs serve as sentries, trackers, search and rescue
dogs, scouts, and mascots. Dogs also have been used to sniff out land mines and
booby traps. In more recent times, dogs have been used to intimidate prisoners
of war. Today, animal carcasses are used to camouflage roadside incendiary
Because of their sensory and diving abilities, dolphins and sea lions are
used for underwater sentry and security duty, mine clearance, and object
recovery. They are the equivalent of bomb-sniffing dogs. Sea lions can also
detect enemy divers. Dolphins have sophisticated sonar and can find mines and
other debris on the ocean floor. Sea lions have excellent low-light vision and
underwater directional hearing capabilities. They can maneuver in tight spaces
and can go on shore. They both can make repeated deepwater dives without
suffering the effects of decompression sickness commonly called “the bends” as
Effects of War Weaponry on Sea Mammals
Testing of weapons in the ocean can cause injury and death to dolphins and
whales whose hearing is extremely sensitive. The sounds of underwater blasts can
travel for hundreds of miles. Whales have stranded themselves because of these
sonar sounds. In addition, some whales and dolphins have been found to suffer
from decompression sickness—bleeding around the brain, ears, and other tissues
and large bubbles in their organs—possibly from rapidly changing diving patterns
to escape the underwater blasts.
Take Action to Help Animals in War
What can you to do to change what is happening to animals used in war and war
research? First, focus on peaceful living in your own life. If you are at “war”
with your boss, family, friends, neighbors, you will be adding to rather than
reducing strife and conflict in your world. Other humane actions include:
- Write your congressional representatives urging them to support legislation to reduce the number of animals used in government and government contracted laboratories.
- Urge your governmental leaders to wage peace, not war.
- Urge the Department of Defense to use nonanimal testing procedures and to stop replicating tests on animals.