United States military bear abuse

This video is called HIMALAYAN BLACK BEAR.

By David Collins

Grizzly end: Bears were fired out of US supersonic jet in ejector seat tests

21 Dec 2012 21:00

The animals were drugged before the flights and were ejected at various speeds and altitudes to determine how well the system worked

He was one of six Himalayan and American Black bears used in testing of the pilot ejection systems of the Convair B-58 Hustler – only to be later put down so the impact on their bodies could be determined by postmortem.

The animals, seen here in a US Air Force video, were drugged before the flights and were ejected at various speeds and altitudes to determine how well the system worked.

A white paper by the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council, which ran the tests, said: “None of the bears received any internal injuries and no spinal fractures occurred on any test.

“One American Black bear was discovered on autopsy to have a laceration of the liver which was attributed partially to an overdose of anaesthesia.”

The four-engined B-58 Hustler flew at Mach 2 – twice the speed of sound – and was created at the height of the Cold War to drop bombs in case of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

The animals were ejected at speeds up to Mach 1.6 at 45,000 feet in the tests, which took place in 1961 at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas.

The bear in the video can be seen with its jaws tied shut being unfastened from a capsule by airmen after it landed and being stretchered away.

US Air Force use bears to test their ejector seats for their fighter pilots during the Cold War.

Science writer Ed Grabianowski, of i09.com, said: “On one hand, using bears for these tests was an extremely practical solution to the problem.

“The Air Force was working on a fix for something that had already caused human deaths.

“On the other hand, it’s hard not to cringe when you imagine the terror and confusion these animals experienced.

“Luckily, the testing programme didn’t last very long.”

Though this particular abuse may be over, NATO is still abusing pigs, monkeys and other animals in Britain and elsewhere.

Drugged and strapped into an ejector seat, how BEARS were used as fighter jet test pilots in the Cold War (thisismoney.co.uk)
Live bears used to test ejector seats on the world’s first supersonic bomber (dailyrecord.co.uk)
The US Air Force Used to Test Supersonic Ejector Seats with Drugged-Up Bears (gizmodo.co.uk)
US Air Force Used Bears to Test Bombers (livescience.com)
American black bear (en.wikipedia.org)
Bear hunting in California: the end of an era (guardian.co.uk)
Endangered Moon Bears Harvested for Bile in Vietnam (newswatch.nationalgeographic.com)

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Air Canada bans research monkeys from its flights

PETA, other animal-rights organizations pressured airline to stop carrying primates destined for laboratories

By François Shalom, THE GAZETTE December 21, 2012

MONTREAL – No more monkey business. The Canadian Transportation Agency has granted Air Canada’s request to file for permission to stop carrying non-human primates from Asia and Africa to labs for medical experiments.

At the urging of customers and animal-rights groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Air Canada asked the CTA in November 2011 for leave to revise its shipping policy.

Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said by email that the carrier is “very pleased” by the CTA’s decision.

“We will proceed to refile our originally proposed amended tariff with the CTA that will require shippers to sign a declaration that non-human primates are not destined for research or experiments. The tariff will be effective 22nd December 2012. We trust the CTA will expedite this request.”

He added that Air Canada “got about 47,000 letters regarding this issue, the vast, vast majority opposing carrying primates.”

Justin Goodman, a spokesperson for PETA in Washington, D.C., said that many of those letters were routed through his and other activist organizations’ websites.

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