Live Pigs Blasted in Terror Attack Experiments

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SO SICK, EVIL, DISGUSTING AND UNNECESSARY!

 

 

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6999916.ece

 

From The Sunday Times

January 24, 2010

Live pigs blasted in terror attack experiments

Marie Woolf, Whitehall Editor

 

LIVE pigs are being blown up with explosives at Porton Down, the government’s

secret military research laboratory, to simulate the effect of terrorist attacks

on civilian targets.

 

In a series of tests at the biological and chemical research centre in

Wiltshire, 18 large pigs were wrapped in protective blankets before bombs were

detonated a few feet away. The scientists allowed the pigs to bleed until almost

a third of their blood was gone to see how long they could be kept alive.

 

MPs and animal welfare groups have questioned the use of live animals in the

explosions, even though the pigs were anaesthetised throughout. None survived

the experiments.

 

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, said: “These are revolting

and unnecessary experiments. Sadly, we are too familiar with the effects of

terrorism. It is perfectly possible to find out things we don’t know without

blowing up pigs to find out.â€

 

Research papers, obtained by The Sunday Times, show that the experiments at the

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory were carried out because “blast

injuries are an increasing problem, owing to the widespread terrorist threatâ€.

 

The blasts were meant to recreate the effect of an explosion in an enclosed

space, such as the July 2005 attacks on the Underground and a double-decker bus

in London, and had been designed to help medics control haemorrhaging from

victims.

 

The pigs were wrapped in Kevlar blankets to protect them from minor bomb debris

and placed less than three yards from the explosive. Before being blown up, they

had tubes inserted into their blood vessels and bladders, and their spleens

removed. A major blood vessel in the abdomen had a wire put into it so the

vessel was lacerated during the blast.

 

Porton Down said the research programme would help British soldiers exposed to

bombs in Afghanistan as well as potential civilian terror casualties. Up to 94%

of critically injured victims of the 2004 Madrid train bombings were identified

as suffering from “blast lungâ€, an injury that leaks over time.

 

A spokeswoman said that anecdotally there was already evidence that the research

was helping to save lives.

 

“This work is part of our broad combat casualty care programme. Anecdotally,

we are seeing evidence of people surviving because of this work,†she said.

 

Porton Down, originally set up to research chemical warfare during the first

world war, uses a special breed of white pig that has skin resembling human

flesh.

 

Scientists at the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection questioned the

validity of the tests, saying that the effect on an anaesthetised pig of a bomb

blast would “differ substantially from those of a conscious human beingâ€.

 

A spokesman said: “We understand the need to deal with the human tragedy, of

which sadly there are too many cases. However, we do not believe that mutilating

pigs in these horrific experiments is the answer.â€

 

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