The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, the annual bill that sets military policy, includes a ban on the use of live animals in live-fire trauma training drills across all military branches. For years, the U.S. military conducted so-called “wound labs,” during which conscious or semiconscious dogs and other animals were suspended from slings and shot with high-powered weapons to inflict injuries for crude medical training drills. The military also cut-off the limbs of live goats with tree trimmers, stabbed live pigs, and pulled out their internal organs. The bill’s passage gives all U.S. military branches their marching orders: No animal will be shot in trauma training drills in 2026, and the ban is not limited to any species.
PETA: In a historic move decades in the making, PETA’s unrelenting pressure campaign on behalf of animals has great news: President Donald J. Trump today signed into law the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, the annual bill that sets military policy, which includes a compassionate amendment sponsored by Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida’s thirteenth congressional district that for the first time includes a ban on the use of live animals in live-fire trauma training drills across all military branches.
The bill’s passage gives all U.S. military branches under the Department of War (also known as the Department of Defense) — including the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, and their respective Reserve and National Guard components — their marching orders: No animal will be shot in trauma training drills in 2026, and the ban is not limited to any species…
For years, the U.S. military conducted so-called “wound labs,” during which conscious or semiconscious dogs and other animals were suspended from slings and shot with high-powered weapons to inflict injuries for crude medical training drills… PETA released never-before-seen eyewitness video footage showing that training instructors hired by the military cut off the limbs of live goats with tree trimmers, shot and stabbed live pigs, and pulled out their internal organs. Some under-anesthetized animals moaned in agony…
The bill’s passage is a major victory for animals brought by the intense, focused work of supporters like you who never once took their eyes off the prize. The collective power of your voice forced government leaders to not only listen, but to care, and, importantly, to act on behalf of animals. It was a sustained, herculean effort, undaunted by the passage of time, that will save countless animals from heinous cruelty. History will look kindly on this day. SOURCE
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