Remember how I said I was a thrice failed vegetarian? Besides burgers (mmm…), the other reason for my failure, and I am not joking in the slightest, is the movie Babe. Remember? The one with the amazingly cute little pig? If not, I suggest you Netflix that right now. Alas, I wish I was going to continue talking about Babe (which I Google Image searched and did not get what I was looking for…until I put “the pig” after it. Eeek! Haha.). Instead, I’m going to rant a tad.

Anyway, if a fictional story about a pig could inspire me to give up meat for over a year, imagine my reaction to this news story: the Army is using pigs as test dummies, shooting at them and then treating their wounds as practice for the field. That’s just cruel! They, of course, say there will be vets around to treat the animals. But they are shooting them with M4 carbines and M16 rifles–I don’t think I could survive that.

But the spokesman for the 25th Infantry Division told us that everything is fine, because the pigs are anesthetized. Oh, that’s great. Make these poor creatures dumb with drugs and then shoot at them. Come on!

One soldier got upset and then anonymously notified PETA. I think that takes a strong person.

Kathy Guillermo, director of PETA’s Laboratory Investigations Department said, “shooting and maiming pigs is outdated as Civil War rifles.” Fact. I do, however, know one Civil War reenactor–and he might take offense to that statement. Sorry!

We can’t condemn other nations for human and animal rights violations and then turn around and do something like this. I recognize the need to make our military as strong as can be, but with all the technology and money in the Department of Defense budget (the highest EVER), don’t you think they could come up with a different method? Apparently there are “hi-tech human simulators” out there. Use them.

You know how Farmer Hoggett says to Babe, “that’ll do, Pig. That’ll do,” at the end of the day? Well, I think “that’ll do, hi-tech human simulator. That’ll do,” flows just as nicely.

And here are a couple of pictures. Just to make your hearts as sappy as my own.

[Posted by Kathleen}

Piglets Near Ullswater – The Lakes, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

My very late entry for the week’s hunt is this one I took last year near Ullswater, Great Britain. The theme this week is emotions so I’m going with playful/happy. These little dudes were having a blast playing with each other. It was the cutest thing.

If you’d like to get in on the hunt, click here for all the details and then start shooting!