Some promising news: the Norwegian Animal Research Authority (NARA) has, for the first time, rejected an application by the Norwegian Armed Forces to injure and kill animals in archaic trauma training exercises.
In live-animal trauma training, animals such as pigs and goats are shot apart, are stabbed and have their bones broken before being sewn back together by trainee surgeons – and then they’re killed. It’s an unacceptably cruel practice, especially as humane, high-tech training methods have been proved to prepare doctors for the battlefield more effectively.
Norway, along with Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK, is one of the only countries in Europe that still uses these barbaric training techniques. However, NARA’s decision to veto the exercises on this occasion suggests that this situation could be about to change. It concluded: “The committee does not approve of the use of animal testing given the information provided in the application and attachments. … The committee finds that the information that is provided in regards to the need to use live animals instead of alternatives in this research is not sufficient”.
We wonder if the tens of thousands of messages that the Norwegian government has received from compassionate PETA supporters, asking that it end live trauma training, could have influenced this progressive decision.
The campaigns by PETA and our international affiliates against the use of animals in live military drills has already made remarkable headway. Last year, Poland abandoned the cruel practice after receiving thousands of messages from concerned members of the public. And last month, the US army made a groundbreaking move to replace the use of animals in six different areas of medical training with modern human-patient simulators.
Of course, we’ll keep on campaigning against this barbaric practice until Norway and the handful of other European countries that still use animals in military drills commit to ending live trauma training altogether.
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Photo: Jørn Stjernekla