Killing in the Name of War - Vegan Live Magazine

Welfare

Welfare

Vivisection and in vivo experimentation on animals by the military means that thousands of animals are injured, exposed to poisons, biological viruses and bacteria, shot or blown up by our government every year 94

Welfare

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odzilla is a fictional prehistoric monster awakened and mutated by nuclear radiation that first appeared in the mid-1950s, nearly 70 years ago, at the height of Cold War paranoia. Godzilla represented the fear of a nuclear war, a towering unfamiliar monster that threatened to destroy entire cities.

Much like the disaster movies we see today, Godzilla held a mirror up to society and despite the amount of time that has passed, this cinematic representation of mutation and animal testing has endured. Earlier this year a Japanese film called Mary & The Witch’s Flower was released which depicts an alternate universe where animals are kept in cages and experimented on by two crazed magicians with disastrous results. Remove the fantasy element from Mary & the Witch’s Flower and you’re left with an unsettling reflection of the modern world.

The use of animals in the beauty, medicine and food industries is well-known, but significant numbers of animals are also used in military experiments to test the effects of mechanical, chemical and biological weapons and many people are not even aware that animals are used in this way.

We’re not talking about the animal casualties of war, which are despicable and heart-breaking in their own right, but the pre-war deaths that happen behind closed door in facilities owned by militia. This issue is particularly worrying because it is so hidden from

us. The nature of military testing means that it is secretive and difficult to research and, although it is true that this testing needs to follow the same regulations as all other animal testing, reports from non-profits such as the Animal Justice Project and the International Association Against Painful Experiments on Animals (IAAPEA) suggest that military experiments are cruel, depraved and worst of all, unnecessary.

Brian Gunn, the Secretary General of the IAAPEA, told us: “'Inevitably the most secret use of animals in research is in the field of weapons research.

Nevertheless, it is known that animals are subjected to radiation, chemical and biological weapons, as well as conventional ballistic weapons. This barbaric research is often funded with taxpayer’s money.

“A typical defense of such tests is that they are for 'defensive reasons', but in fact the results can always be used for 'offensive' purposes. The usual justification for experiments where animals are deliberately wounded is that battle injuries can be better treated, but human beings and animals are physiologically different so such tests can be irrelevant.”

Using animals for weapons testing is nothing new. Between 1946 and 1958 there were 23 tests of nuclear devices detonated at Bikini Atoll, an island in the North Pacific, by the US. Boats

were bombed to measure the potential fallout if a war broke out between Eastern and Western Europe. Boats were loaded with live animals including pigs, rats and goats to measure the radioactive radius and the expected death toll. The Los Angeles Times reported at the time (15th July 1946) that: “Bikini test animals have begun ‘dying like flies’.”

Radiation sickness, internal injuries and lack of prompt treatment meant that the majority of the animals used in these experiments died and following the tests, many contracted leukaemia.

Pigs were of particular use for these tests because of their biological similarity to humans and one particular pig became of interest to researchers — a pig who was eventually nicknamed Indestructible Pig 311. Pig 311 was found swimming in the sea after an atomic bomb test was ‘rescued’ and after observation was sent to the National Zoo in Washington, DC. Not only was this pig kept in captivity and given a number instead of a name, but it was used to test hateful weapons and poked, tested and examined against its will. Pig 311 was, as its name suggests, not the only test subject.

Stories which have emerged since have brought the full extent of the cruelty towards non-human animals at Bikini Atoll to light. Dustin E.Kirby, a Navy trauma medic, who was given an anesthetized pig in training, said: “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.”

Over 2,000 animals were used in the Bikini Atoll tests between 1946 and 1958 95

Welfare and it is a practice that still continues today; animals are still widely used in live tissue training. The New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS) estimate that there are at least 15 US military facilities that use animals for combat training and researching some of the deadliest viruses in the world including Ebola, Dengue fever and Anthrax.

Some would argue that it is necessary for non-human animals to be ‘used’ for this purpose — to help hone medical cures for the worst diseases, which can be used as weapons, but it is just another form of non-human animal exploitation. We don’t own animals. We have no right to keep them, use them, test on them, subject them to pain, monitor them, bomb them or pepper them with bullets.

It isn’t just the US either. These abhorrent practices are being carried out all over the world to research and improve weapons that will be used to end human lives. Hate breeds hate and these live tissue tests are nothing more than killing in the name of war.

A freedom of information request highlighted the number of animals used in research for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) — which is in charge of the security of the United Kingdom. 2167 mice, 199 rats, 236 guinea pigs, 27 pigs

and 116 non-human primates took part in research by the Defence, Science and Technology Lab (Dstl) for the MOD in 2016, totalling 2745 animals.

Dstl and the MOD argue that: “Dstl uses less than half of one per cent of the total number of animals used in research annually in the UK.” That doesn’t make what Dstl are doing any more moral — 2745 lives were exploited and taken away from their rightful owners.

And for what? To test nerve agents, to be injected with ketamine or with biological weapons; to infect them with diseases or suffocate them with toxic gases. It is beyond comprehension the torture that these animals endure.

The Animal Justice Project has conducted significant research into the use of animals in military research which they published as a paper called The Invisible Victims — a heart-breaking, disturbing and eye-opening read.

We spoke to Claire, the founder of the Animal Justice Project, who said: “The UK Government’s Ministry of Defence is directly responsible for the torture and death of thousands of animals including rabbits, guinea pigs and monkeys each year. Animal Justice Project’s has revealed time and time again the chilling studies that take place there – especially those in the name of ‘warfare research’.

This is a crime not only against other species, but also humanity.

“We’ve uncovered pigs being forced to inhale toxic mustard gas, macaque monkeys injected with vaccines, marmosets infected with biothreat diseases, battlefield wounds inflicted on rabbits, and guinea pigs forced to inhale nerve gas. This is unacceptable and makes a mockery of their ethical review procedures. The Ministry of Defence is “proud” of this work, and claims that it saves human lives. Animal Justice Project rejects this. Each of the experiments we've uncovered indicate the exact opposite — researchers are simply repeating a well-worn formula to study poisonous war chemicals using crude animal tests. In the year 2000, in an Early Day Motion (EDM 1166), an MP tabled the motion stating that the House was “disgusted” and “appalled” by animal experiments involving mustard gas and nerve gas.

Yet 18 years on, these experiments continue at Porton Down. Additionally, the majority of procedures carried out at the laboratory are classified as ‘basic’ research which are speculative by nature and need not claim any tangible benefits for humans.”

Why should animals’ lives be stolen simply to improve our means to inflict further pain and damage? Quite simply, they shouldn’t. It’s immoral and wrong.

Thankfully, there are groups that are working to expose the animal casualties to the public and urge governments to use non-animal methods such as computer modelling to save lives — human and non-human.

Brian Gunn, from IAAPEA, said: “The suffering which human beings inflict upon each other during the course of war is the responsibility of the human species alone, and there can be no justification for the pain inflicted upon other animals to test ways of harming and destroying ourselves.”

For more information head to: animaljusticeproject.com/the-secret-war

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