British Navy halts Goat experiments onboard submarine fleet

international | animal rights | other press

Thursday February 07, 2008 14:01

by staring at goats

"......The British Ministry of Defence says it will abandon deep-diving experiments which involve inducing decompression sickness in live goats. The animals were used to see what the likely risk of "the bends" would be following escape from a submarine at varying depths under water.
The information would help crews judge whether it would be safer to abandon a stricken vessel or wait to be rescued. Animal rights campaigners say the move will "end decades of animal suffering". More than 400 such experiments have taken place since 2000. However, the tests were suspended in March 2007 while a review committee of six experts examined alternative methods, such as computer-modelling techniques to simulate the effects of the "bends". Now the UK MoD says there is no further need for the animal testing......."

a goat compresses the same way as a human

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7230867.stm

".......The Royal Navy used goats to test whether it was safe for sailors to escape from stricken submarines because their skulls are a similar shape to those of humans, the MoD revealed yesterday. The little-known experiments to avoid submariners getting the bends were revealed in a written Commons statement by the defence minister, Derek Twigg, which also announced that the practice was to be abandoned. Live goats have been used for decades at the navy's base in Gosport, near Portsmouth, as part of research into the effects of different degrees of decompression. The animals were placed into hyperbaric pressure chambers to induce sickness. "They were never placed under water and they were not alone. Other goats were in there too," a defence official said yesterday........."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2253568,00.html

The French did it too..,

The animal rights people are delighted.............".......Live goats have been used for decades by the MoD at their Gosport facility as part of its hyperbaric research in into the Submarine Escape Rescue and Abandonment System (SMERAS). The animals are forced into hyperbaric pressure chambers to induce decompression sickness. The tests were suspended in March 2007, following years of animal rights protest, which saw a committee of six experts instructed to examine humane non-animal models such as computer-modeling and safe human trials to simulate the effects of decompression sickness, or ‘the bends’, which is caused when divers ascend too quickly. Britain’s announcement today follows a similar ‘ban’ by the French Navy which has already stopped using live animals in this research. “This is a victory for common sense and animal protection which sees and end to decades of animal suffering.” says Wendy Higgins of non-animal medical research charity the Dr Hadwen Trust, which specializes in humane alternatives to animal testing. “Goats have suffered brain damage and other hideous effects of these unnecessary experiments despite the fact that the military has for some considerable time known more than enough about the effects of the ‘bends’ on its military personnel. It is regrettable but inevitable that warfare causes human suffering, but it is totally unethical that we should add to this the unnecessary suffering of innocent animals.”.............

http://www.drhadwentrust.org.uk/

other coverage

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/20...7.xml
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/07/goat_compressio...stop/

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Comments (3 of 3)

Crazy Rulers of the World love their Goats

by Joe

Thu Feb 07, 2008 15:07

These people are basically nutty. The head of US military intelligence once tried to walk through walls! They use psychics to try and find bin Laden and they even try to kill goats with a glance! Watch this video of General Albert Stubblebine his efforts to walk through walls and his goats.

indeed casual readers might enjoy being let in on the "staring at goat" joke.

by ag glinniúint tu, a ghobhar - "you are feeling sleepy......."

Thu Feb 07, 2008 23:05

It's not just about staring nor just about goats. Admittedly no casual reader may even hope to enter into the solemnity of a shared secret which is the knowledge, understanding or use of codified language. But you'll be on your way to a wink-wink if not a fully initiated nudge-nudge. For in truth there are several meanings to goats but one which might assist you on the noble path to not being scared might be the "CIA killing goats by staring at them". That got a specific mention in an article about how Pakistan stopped existing as a viable entity last year complete with a pretty humble recipe for goat stew. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/84912?&condense_comment...14097 If you can't be bothered reading that sort of cryptic or indulgent shite - just read the website of the man who wrote the book staring at goats http://www.jonronson.com/goats_04.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Ronson
But that is not the only meaning of goats nor was it the first mention on this site of such an activity. This article from 2004 declared the activity to be a waste of time http://www.indymedia.ie/article/67783 Goats like Dogs have appeared lots of the years. Indeed there was a feature article last summer which highlighted the plight of the indiginous goats of the Burren, County Clare http://www.indymedia.ie/article/83630

___________________________

Now you're feeling suitably solemn & rewarded & having read the article above know that in the late 20th century to the early years of the 21st century both the UK & French military machines were experimenting with
the goat or Capra aegagrus hircus to give it its proper title, & further now knowing that a CIA research unit is ridiculed for exploring the possibility of killing the critters by staring at them "and using negative chi" - it might whet your wonder to ponder : can you do anything to a goat by prolonged less than courtous direct eye-contact. & given the similarities in cardio-vascular & respiratorial systems between capra aegagrus hircus and the homo sapien can such techniques be used as either defensive or offensive weapons? The answer, ludicrous as it may seem, is in the affirmative. But the conditions have to be right. I would advise the more nervous type of conspiratorial head to not worry about it excessively, but if given to twisting this old canard in the future to talk more about induced myotonia & less about "negative chi". Coz it's much easier to just give someone a heart attack or an embolism /stroke or quite simply just crash their plane.

a wonderful reminder of how the Brit army gave LSD to squaddies without telling them

by staring at blindfolds

Mon Feb 11, 2008 21:45

they didn't get compensation unlike others spiked with LSD by MI6 during "truth serum" human experimentation things. IT was all the rage back in the fifties. The Yankees were slow & only started spiking beat poets & trailer trash by the time the Vietnam war was full on. Then the Maharishi met the beatles, L Ron Hubbard invented the lie detector & of course punk rock helped to make the world the squeeky just & optimistic it is. No animal will be harmed in the interest of protecting the people who are employed on the submarine nuclear warhead armed fleets of the UK or France thanks to the power of the computer modelling we all have now. Truly Gifted.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/feb/24/military.past

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British Navy halts Goat experiments onboard submarine fleet

Comments (3 of 3)