Eleven months of testing body armor by strapping it on pigs and simulating IED blasts has provided military researchers extremely useful information about soldiers wounded in roadside explosions, reports USA Today. Contrary to Defense Department worries, the protective gear does not increase the odds of traumatic brain injury by deflecting the force of the blasts to the soldiers’ heads. But this very good news for the troops has drawn some fire from animal rights activists:
Indeed, people are not pigs, Mr. Stephens–and pigs are not people. In view of your feelings about this, might I suggest volunteering your own body, and those of others equally concerned about the welfare of pigs, for any further testing in the service of this “worthy goal?”
