NGO: Israeli military tests fatal weapons on animals

Ramallah (QNN) – The Israeli non-governmental organization “Let the Animals Live” revealed today that the Israeli military secretly carried out hundreds of weapon development experiments on animals, including dogs and sheep.

Nearly 1,000 experiments were conducted by the Israeli Defense Ministry on different types of animals during the past three years. The animals were used to simulate multi-casualty maritime incidents.

The breakdown of animals used in the experiments included 40 dogs, 25 goats, 10 sheep, 154 pigs, 25 guinea pigs, 160 fat sand rats (rodents of medium size), 10 mice and 186 rats.

The pigs were the most used for medical experiments as they are biologically similar to the humans, the document said.

The document also showed that the Defense Ministry conducted some of the experiments to test the animals’ body reaction on an explosion and the aerosol explosion.

The Israeli military says that it slightly uses experiments on animals only for medical research purposes and under supervision of qualified veterinarians.

“All experiments are supervised and carried out with the approval of the Council for Experiments on Animal Subjects at the Defense Ministry,” the army and ministry said.

However, animal rights organizations have criticized the fact that despite significant technological developments in recent years, alternatives are not yet used.

These alternatives include advanced sensors, sophisticated mannequins, simulators and monitoring devices that allow officials to examine the effects of explosives weapons.