If Girl Scouts could survive in the jungle without drinking snake blood or eating live lizards, what is wrong with the US Marine Corps?
For immediate release:
17 February 2021
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
Washington – PETA has filed a rulemaking petition to stop a party masquerading as teaching in Thailand known as Cobra Gold. US Marines’ drills pose a threat of zoonotic diseases similar to COVID-19, violate the US Department of Defense’s policy of using available non-animal techniques, and endanger the king cobra, which is vulnerable to extinction.
Cobra Gold’s next training – which is marketed as a food procurement exercise, but which officials say is designed to build camaraderie between troops – has reportedly been delayed until August due to COVID-19 fears, so the petition also calls for the new Secretary of Defense, General Lloyd J. Austin III, will prioritize the end of Cobra Gold.
During Cobra Gold 2020, US Marines and instructors killed chickens with their bare hands, skinned live geckos and ate them, ate live scorpions and tarantulas, decapitated cobras and drank their blood, and enjoyed ritualistic killing and animal consumption.
“The Girl Scout could figure out how to survive in the jungle without killing animals for practice, like our best and smartest military,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA calls on the Pentagon to end the bloodthirsty killing of animals during Cobra Gold, which defiles the honor of the Marines, jeopardizes public health and threatens species that are vulnerable to extinction.”
PETA also notes that there is a precedent for ending the use of animals in military training. In 2011, the Marine Corps Mountain Training Center suspended the use of live animals in its survival training courses after discussions with PETA. And nearly three decades ago, the US Army’s Dugway Proving Ground canceled an animal-based survival training course after PETA asked then-Secretary of Defense Les Aspin to intervene.
PETA, whose motto is in part that “animals are not in our hands to be abused in any way,” opposes arrogance, a worldview focused on human superiority. The group’s petition on rulemaking is available here. For more information please visit PETA.org or subscribe to the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram or click here…