RICHMOND, Va. April 19, 2012 (AP)
The Coast Guard is defending its practice of using live animals in its combat medical training after an activist group released a video on Wednesday of a goat's legs being removed with tree trimmers during what it said was training for agency personnel.
Live anesthetized goats have been used in Coast Guard training to treat combat wounds, but the agency could not verify if the video involved its personnel. The courses do involve "live tissue training using live animals," Lt. Cmdr. Jamie C. Frederick, spokesman for the Atlantic Area, wrote in an email.
Frederick was responding after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called on the Pentagon to stop the practice. A congressman also has introduced legislation that would phase out the use of animals by the military for such training.
PETA said the undercover video it released from a whistleblower did show military instructors contracted by the Coast Guard cutting off an anesthetized goat's legs in Virginia Beach. The faces of the participants are blurred and they are not in uniform.
"Animals used in trauma training are supported and monitored by well-trained, experienced veterinary staff to ensure that appropriate anesthesia and analgesia prevent them from experiencing pain or distress," Frederick wrote.
In the video, the goat is still while its legs are cut. Later it makes noise and moves, followed by one of the men calling for another "bump" of anesthesia.
Other branches of the military use similar training on goats and pigs and have defended it as a way to replicate wartime injuries and prepare medics and front-line troops for treating catastrophic injuries in the field of battle.
The Pentagon declined to respond to an AP request for comment on the video.
"Effective combat trauma training and treatment results in lowering the fatality rate of U.S. troops deployed in combat situations," Frederick wrote.
He said the training has also proved invaluable in noncombat situations, such as when Coast Guard members were the first to respond to Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake.
PETA and other animal rights groups, as well as some medical professionals, say the practice is cruel and unnecessary. They promote the use of human simulation models over animals.
"Learning how to apply a tourniquet on a severed goat's leg does not help prepare medical providers to treat an anatomically different human being wounded on the battlefield," according to Dr. Michael P. Murphy, an associate professor of surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves who served two tours of duty in Iraq. He was among the medical professionals who signed PETA's letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta seeking an end to the practice.
The group also asks U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate "apparent serious violations of the Animal Welfare Act."
U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, a California Democrat, has introduced legislation that would phase out such use of animals by the military. He said he's faced fierce opposition from the Department of Defense.
"With these animals, they can break their limbs, or they want to simulate broken bones or a gunshot wound, and it's not clear if they're anesthetized or not," he said. "You're torturing animals when you don't have to."
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Online:
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: http://www.peta.org/
Tier 1 Group: http://www.t1g.com/
April 21, 2012, 7:14 AM — You've all seen --and envied--that viral video that gets millions of views seemingly overnight, the one everyone talks about for days. But does getting millions of views on YouTube translate into getting millions of dollars, or even thousands of dollars, in sales? And does adding video to your website or product pages really improve your search engine rankings and make people want to do business with you?
To find the answers to these questions, CIO.com interviewed dozens of video experts --from professional video makers and marketers to companies that have successfully used video to market their products or services --to find out who can benefit from video marketing and what it takes to successfully make and market a video.
Who Needs Video?
If you sell a visual, hard-to-explain, or needs-to-be-seen product or service--"anything you can't test drive or try on," says Roger Vaughn, marketing and technology problem solver at Swift Marketing--having a video can make a huge difference.
Take, for example, BluScenes by Scenic Labs, a provider of ambient Blu-ray products (i.e.,high-resolution videos of aquariums, fine art and fireplace scenes) for doctors' offices, wellness centers, spas and homes. "The first year we added video clips, our sales increased by about 400%," says Jason Rosenfeld, founder/producer, Scenic Labs, LLC. "They doubled again (in dollars), when we upgraded our videos to full-length HD versions."
In addition, since adding video to its product pages, Scenic Labs has seen a dramatic reduction in the number of returns--because customers know exactly what they are going to get.
And those BluScenes videos have not only benefited Scenic Labs, they've helped the company's partners. That's because "when partner sites include our videos, their sales typically double," says Rosenfeld.
ScanMyPhotos, a service that scans customers' photos, slides and negatives, is another good example of a service business that can benefit from video. "The best tool for explaining how to place orders and answer questions is video," says ScanMyPhotos CEO and President Mitch Goldstone. That's why the company features a number of how-to videos right on its home page, including this one on how to pack your photos for scanning with the ScanMyPhotos.com prepaid box.
How to Create a Video to Get People Talking and Clicking
A bad video --one that is poorly lit, that you can barely hear or is deafening, that rambles or doesn't make a point --is worse than not having any video on your website (or YouTube). So to help you create a video that will get customers talking and clicking are 12 helpful tips from the experts.
1. Know who your target audience is. "Think how your video can help your end user, the customer," says John Sarkisian, CEO, SKLZ, a sports training product manufacturer. In SKLZ's case, its how-to videos, which showcase its sports training products, are geared to customer representatives at sporting goods retailers. That exposure --or brand awareness --led to SKLZ getting increased shelf space at national sporting goods retailers, such as Dick's Sporting Goods, which boosted sales.
2. Script it. "A script for a video is like a blueprint when building a house," says Edward Schlesinger, script writer, OnlineVideoScriptwriting.com. "It will let you see what the finished product will look like before you start." In addition, "changes on paper are much easier and cheaper to do than once production starts."
3. Have a clear call to action. "What do you want people to do after they've watched your video?" asks Schlesinger. No matter how short your video is, "make it clear what you want people to do --pick up the phone, sign up online, walk through your doors. Don't throw away this opportunity to convert potential customers." (For an example of how to get your message --or call to action --across in 1:34, see Dollar Shave Club's recent video, which was viewed over 2 million times in just over 48 hours, and is prominently featured on Dollar Shave Club's home page.
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