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The U.S. military conducts secret weapons tests on dogs and cats, shooting the animals so that investigators can examine their wounds, PETA says.
- Rules Banning US Military Use of Animal Testing Were Secretly Overturned in 2020, PETA Says
- The animal rights organization was responsible for a landmark 1984 campaign where the Department of Defense banned animal testing
- PETA requested data related to tests conducted by the military’s medical research command since 2020, but it declined to release details
- The Secretary of the Army has been appealed and PETA has threatened to sue if not honored
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The US military has secretly reversed a policy that prevented them from conducting brutal weapons tests on dogs, cats and other animals, PETA claimed.
The change that explicitly authorized the US Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) to conduct previously banned tests may have been implemented as early as 2020, but it was done in secret.
Now, following a freedom of information request by PETA in March, the military has refused to disclose any information about those tests.
But PETA believes they are happening, and Americans would be outraged if they knew that their tax dollars are funding the bloodshed.
Their suspicions increased after a freedom of information request was denied, and the amount of material the military said it had to release on the subject mysteriously dropped from 2,000 pages to details of a single experiment.
Army officials refused to release the material for security reasons – with PETA adamant the excuse is a ruse to cover up horrific brutality.
The recent policy change permits the “purchase or use of dogs, cats, non-human primates or marine mammals to inflict injuries” with military weapons. Such experiments were banned after the regulations were introduced in 1983 and 2005.
Brigadier General Anthony McQueen is the head of the US Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) – the division accused of conducting the experiments
“This new policy was not promoted or publicly announced,” PETA vice president Shalin Gala told the New York Post. “They probably don’t want the PR nightmare that would arise if this information were released.”
A spokeswoman for the Army’s medical research commander, Lori Salvatore, told the New York Post that the change was in wording only and in accordance with a 2019 Pentagon instruction that animals should not be used in military exercises.
The military rejected PETA’s March 2022 request for photos, videos, and other documentation related to experiments authorized by the USAMRDC. In a letter to the animal rights organization, the military branch acknowledged that at least one test exists, but did not disclose any information.
PETA claims that the USAMRDC had previously stated that there were “more than 2,000” pages related to the request, but they quickly bounced back.
In 1984, PETA was involved in a successful campaign to end the US military’s “wound labs” that would target animals with high-powered military rifles.
A released photo shows a soldier preparing to shoot a cat.
A member of the US military prepares to shoot a cat during an experiment in 1983. The practice was banned after a protest — but PETA claims it’s now restarted
The military has a history of photographing animals as part of a program to research how wounds heal and to provide information about how soldiers might heal as well.
The campaign resulted in the military’s first animal testing ban and was issued by then Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.
In 2005, the military issued an ordinance banning the use of animals for the development of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. As part of the 2020 decision, the military has now changed its stance.
PETA, whose motto is “animals are not ours to experiment on,” has appealed the military’s refusal to reverse the requested information.
A statement said: “Taxpayers deserve to know if their money is going to torture dogs, cats, marine animals and primates in pointless and cruel experiments with weapons injury.”
If the appeal is unsuccessful, Gala said PETA would file a lawsuit.
Last year, liberal hero Dr. Anthony Fauci came under fire after it was revealed his National Institutes of Health had funded cruel research on beagle dogs.