PETA is demanding that University of Tennessee Health Science Center Chancellor Steve Schwab cancel a planned Thursday “training” exercise in which live pigs will be "mutilated and killed," said PETA officials. The exercise is scheduled to take place at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine, in association with a regional emergency medevac company, Erlanger Health System’s LIFE FORCE Medical. PETA is also asking the chancellor to use only animal-free human simulators going forward.
The procedures on pigs reportedly attempt to teach critical-care procedures for human patients needing transport to medical facilities. Course leaders subject the pigs to numerous procedures, including inducing collapsed lungs, cutting into an artery to induce bleeding, and cracking open the ribs if resuscitating the pigs fails. Inside sources revealed to PETA that at least one pig died this year because of medical error while undergoing a chest tube insertion. The pigs who survive the procedures are killed at the end of the trainings. All these procedures can be practiced on simulators that accurately mimic the human body, said PETA officials.
“Smart, sensitive pigs are being mangled and killed for barbaric training exercises that would be better taught using human-relevant simulation models,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA is calling on the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine and Erlanger Health System’s LIFE FORCE Air Medical to embrace superior, non-animal technology that spares pigs’ lives and allow trainees to practice invasive procedures until they’re confident and adept.”