Marine Corps Urged to Ban Contractor for Apparently Illegal Killing of Animals
UPDATE: After receiving a complaint from PETA, the city of Suffolk, Virginia sent a letter to Assessment Training Solutions and Consulting Corporation (ATSCC), informing the company that it can no longer shoot, stab or otherwise maim pigs for military training on its Virginia property.
Originally posted on October 15, 2015:
PETA is calling on Gen. Robert Neller to investigate and, if appropriate, ban a military contractor for apparently shooting, stabbing, and killing animals in a September 28 Suffolk, Virginia, trauma training drill for Marines personnel on land not zoned for this activity. This is an apparent violation of local law and the Marine Corps requirement that contractors have land-use permits to conduct medical training drills.
As PETA explained in a complaint sent to Gen. Robert Neller this week, military training contractor Assessment and Training Solutions Consulting Corporation (ATSCC) has apparently mutilated and killed pigs on the Suffolk property of company president John Janota for years, in violation of zoning ordinances. The land is zoned as “agricultural,” a category that does not permit military medical training on animals. PETA filed a separate complaint with the Suffolk mayor this week regarding this apparent illegal activity.
Five days prior to the September 28 course, PETA also provided Suffolk officials with evidence that apparently illegal activity was scheduled. City inspectors took no action despite witnessing vehicles and a livestock trailer entering the premises and hearing multiple gunshots coming from the property and even admitted that they’ve long known about ATSCC’s apparently illegal trauma exercises on animals.
“Shooting, cutting up, and killing animals for military trauma training is cruel, educationally inferior, and, in this case, also apparently illegal,” says PETA Director of Laboratory Investigations Justin Goodman. “The Marine Corps should not be doing business with a company that has so little regard for following the law.”
In 2013, a PETA tip prompted a zoning inspector to meet with Janota’s neighbor, who corroborated PETA’s complaint by describing “pits full of dead animals” and classrooms on his property as well as military vehicles entering the property.
What You Can Do
Please send a polite e-mail to your congressional representatives and urge them to SUPPORT the Battlefield Excellence through Superior Training (BEST) Practices Act (S. 587/H.R. 1095), which will spare animals’ lives and ensure that servicemembers learn lifesaving medical skills using the most effective modern technology.
