U.S. military troops are eating live animals and drinking cobra blood in survival training
In addition to eating live scorpions and drinking cobra blood, another video shows Marines killing chickens with their bare hands and skinning and eating live geckos.
REBECCA KHEEL: Cobra Gold is a multinational military exercise and the largest in the Indo-Pacific region. It has several stages, including live fire training, landmine destruction and an amphibious assault demonstration. The event includes jungle survival training led by Thai instructors, and photos released by the U.S. military of this year’s exercises in late February and early March show Marines drinking cobra blood and eating live scorpions…
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is pushing the Pentagon to end the use of live animals during an annual survival training in Thailand that has involved U.S. troops drinking cobra blood. In a letter Monday to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, the animal rights group argued that… In the letter, PETA focused on the risk of transmitting diseases from animals to humans, which is how the current coronavirus pandemic is believed to have started…
“Considering the danger zoonotic diseases pose to the troops — and indeed to all humanity — it is imperative that you end the use of live animals in Cobra Gold and instead use more effective and ethical non-animal training methods,” wrote Shalin Gala, PETA’s vice president of international laboratory methods…
PETA, which cited a video from the South China Morning Post that also showed Marines killing chickens with their bare hands and skinning and eating live geckos, previously took issue with the survival training in a March letter to Marines Commandant Gen. David Berger… The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. SOURCE…
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