Marine Training Hard On Pigs

Live Pigs Being Used By Marines To Practice Wound Repairs

Whooee, I can just hear the animal rights activists now. It seems the Marine Corps has decided to use live pigs in a training exercise to teach Navy doctors, corpsmen and some infantry Marines how to treat battle wounds. They first anesthetize them, then shoot them or blow them up so that the docs can treat real trauma instead of those crash test dummies that don't bleed. You talk about short ribs?

An American Pig Is Worth More Than A Terroist

According to my sources the pigs never regain consciousness and are euthanized after the exercise. I hope at least they are then donated (what's left of them) to local BBQ joints. I'm all for realism when it comes time to train doctors and corpsmen in the rigors of combat trauma but this makes me a bit queasy. Instead of maiming, then killing perfectly good pigs, why don't we have some of those terrorists and taliban prisoners kept at GITMO draw straws for a chance to help our Marine medical personnel train in the arts of hemorrhage control, intravenous access, pressure bandages, tourniquets and the like. 

Politically incorrect you say? You want realism? Heck, that's as good as it gets, the only thing terrorists have in common with the rest of us is that they bleed the same color. Sounds like the best use of a terrorist that I have ever heard of yet. You could combine infantry tactics with medical training in the same exercise and save taxpayer dollars on anesthetics. But alas, you think the animal activists can raise a stink, try messing with the civil libertarians!

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