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Do you want your Army to maim goats and pigs?

Farm Sanctuary has recently learned that the US Army plans to stab, shoot, and break the legs of pigs and goats this week as part of a training program at Fort Dix. The idea is to create combat injuries so that medics-in-training can fix them. Instead, it is an exercise in cruelty.

There is absolutely no reason for this inhumane treatment of animals, or to force our soldiers to perform such heartless actions under the guise of national security. Better methods exist to ensure our wounded troops get the treatment they need: the Department of Defense Combat Trauma Patient Simulator, the Air Force Expeditionary Medical Skills Institute’s Center of Trauma and Readiness Skills, the Naval Trauma Training Center, as well as the use of human cadavers, medical mannequins, and training in trauma hospitals. In fact, the Department of Defense has an animal welfare regulation that requires the use of non-animal methods when such methods are available.

The training starts today and runs through Friday, so there is no time to waste. Please send a letter to Colonel Thaxton, the Installation Commander at Fort Dix immediately. You can send a letter right from the Farm Sanctuary website. Just take a minute to personalize the text of the letter—this will make your letter more effective in aiding these animals. After you send your letter, please forward to your friends and family and ask them to send a letter as well.

At Farm Sanctuary we provide care and refuge for many goats and pigs, like Joan van Ark and her porcine friends who were used as “teaching tools” at a veterinary school, and Zoop, the goat with the prosthetic leg. We know first hand the emotional trauma they go through at the hands of cruelty and the fulfilling lives they can lead when provided with compassion. That is why we need you to contact the Army today.