This came to me today in my email...from the PETA website - ferrets NEED our HELP!! Jane (and the "Horrible Horde of 9") In recent years, PETA has had significant success at convincing the few universities and hospitals around the country that are lagging behind their more progressive counterparts to modernize their curricula by replacing intubation training laboratories in which cats and ferrets have hard plastic tubes repeatedly shoved down their delicate windpipes with modern simulators that are humane and better prepare medical professionals to save lives. Even major military facilities like the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth and the Naval Medical Center San Diego have made the change after hearing from PETA. Yet despite pleas from PETA and medical experts, the Madigan Army Medical Center continues to torment ferrets in this archaic training even though it stated in 2007 that the practice "will be phased out due to the development of adequate simulation training models" and the fact that military regulations actually require that animal laboratories be replaced with simulators when available. There is no excuse for Madigan to keep harming ferrets when 21st century non-animal training methods are already in use at nearly every other facility in the country. We need your help. Please click here to send an e-mail to Madigan officials urging them to keep their 2007 promise by immediately replacing the cruel use of animals for intubation training with modern simulators. Thank you for all that you are doing to help animals! Sincerely, Justin Goodman, M.A. Associate Director Laboratory Investigations Department People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [Posted in FML 7498]