Marine Corps Urged to Ban Contractor for Apparently Illegal Killing of Animals

PETA Calls On Gen. Robert Neller to Review Apparent Violation of Marine Corps Contract by Company That Shot, Stabbed Animals Without Permit

For Immediate Release:
October 15, 2015

PETA is calling on the Marines Corps Commandant 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. Watch the WTKR news story here.

“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.

PETA’s letters to Gen. Robert Neller and Suffolk Mayor Linda Johnson are available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.