Human vs Nature?

Why must I always be forced to decide between the love I have for my own species and the respect  I have for all living things?

In case people don’t know, the Military had been under fire for using test pigs in armor testing where they put some pigs in armor and others not in armor or less armor and then put them on a vehicle and blow them up. This is supposed to mimic the effect of a “road side” bombing like those in Iraq that have killed many of our soldiers. There is also an article about a learning method for keeping someone alive; it involves brutally shooting a pig in the face, or body, repeatedly and then having a surgeon learn to keep them alive. “Working with live tissue!”

Source 1 | Source 2

WASHINGTON — Military researchers have dressed live pigs in body armor and strapped them into Humvee simulators that were then blown up with explosives to study the link between roadside bomb blasts and brain injury.

For an 11-month period that ended in December, researchers subjected pigs and rats to about 200 blasts, according to Pentagon documents and interviews. The explosions have ranged in intensity, wounding some of the pigs and killing others. Roadside bombs are the top killer of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

However, this is not the only thing they are used for. They are also used for surgery.

The idea is to work with live tissue. You get a pig and you keep it alive. And every time I did something to help him, they would wound him again. So you see what shock does, and what happens when more wounds are received by a wounded creature. My pig? They shot him twice in the face with a 9-millimeter pistol, and then six times with an AK-47 and then twice with a 12-gauge shotgun. And then he was set on fire. I kept him alive for 15 hours. That was my pig.

I don’t know. Okay. On one hand I understand that it’s important to protect our troops and to try to develop the best methods to protect them. On the other hand, at what cost? What kind of despicable cruelty is this? Compounded by the fact that we have alternative means.

In the case of shooting pigs, an alternative would be;

One of the available alternatives is the Trauma Man System, a simulator of the human body used for surgical training that includes the simulated tissue structures and bodily fluids (for more information, see www.simulab.com/TraumaSurgery.htm). In 2001, the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma approved the use of Trauma Man for Advanced Trauma Life Support courses. Also available is “The Ultimate Hurt” manikin that comes with a wide range of trauma wound modules to add realism to training exercises. Additional alternatives include clinical experience by training in emergency rooms in metropolitan areas, the use of human cadavers and ballistic gelatin (used to simulate living soft tissue in order to measure bullet impact), and videotapes prepared under actual combat conditions.

I’m distraught at the idea that at this current time we would still be doing something so barbaric to animals. Then again, looking at the condition of mass food production, I suppose I shouldn’t be when it comes to the case of farm animals and people’s overall lack of concern. We treat our food like crap, when in my opinion, it deserves respect. Native Americans had it right in this idea. Call me a “hippy”, but at the end of the day creatures feel the same pain we do and I would never wish even the smallest amounts of pain on another creature. So the idea of shooting a pig over and over again? Or blowing them up?

So while I may be torn, what I do know is that there are other ways and the Military needs to invest in them. The inhumane treatment is not acceptable and yes, I love my soldiers and their lives matter to me, but there are alternative means and cruelty should not be allowed and the blatant disrespect towards our planet and the other living things on it? Unacceptable.