While animal agents may have infiltrated the European legislative and judicial systems, here at home, we still know what side we are on in the War on Animals, and that goes double for the U.S. Army.
In a medical training exercise (also to send a message) to be held in Hawaii, the army is planning to shoot a bunch of pigs, despite protests from the al Qaeda-backed People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. That’s right, for the first time in far too long, the army is going to shoot animals with its M16 rifles and M4 carbines. SWEET.
And since it is being held in Hawaii, a huge pig roast will be held afterward.
I was a bit surprised that this proposed pig shoot was for a medical training exercise — the military (and its overlords in the armaments industry) have long expressed an interest in using pigs as targets in evaluating the relative effects of alternative small arms choices. The current thinking is that the 5.56mm round used in the M16 & M4 is too light for effective long-range combat, while the 7.62x51mm round used in the M14 is too powerful for hand-held automatic fire. There is a lot of controversy over the accuracy of synthetic proxy targets (ballistics gel, etc), with a relatively broad feeling that pigs would be a pretty accurate target for estimating efficiency against human targets.
Unfortunately the desire for controlled conditions makes it very difficult for these tests to be conducted on feral pigs — a significant environmental nuisance, with a population of 2-4 million in Texas alone.
Perhaps the government could fund a “New Deal” style major public works project of tracking down feral pigs, hog-tying them, and transporting them to ranges set up for ballistics testing. After post-mortem analysis, the edible food products could be distributed to both the project workers and a wide variety of food banks and other aid organizations (presumably not including those with significant Jewish or Islamic clientele).
Of course this proposal might be a joke…. ?