The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency has been blowing up pigs to test how effective body armor is at protecting US soldiers against roadside bombs -- and animal activists are outraged.

The research is being carried out on rats as well as pigs, but pigs are considered essential to the project because they are physiologically much closer to humans. About 200 blasts were conducted last year and more are scheduled for later this year.

According to the Independent:

"People are not pigs," complained Martin Stephens, a vice-president for animal research at the Humane Society of the United States. "I think the relevance of this is highly questionable." ...

The pigs are dressed up in body armour and placed in conditions similar to those of a Humvee transporter before being blown up. The project aims to establish whether wearing body armour might increase the risk of damage to the brain as the pressure of blasts is diverted from the torso to the head.

"If use of animal subjects in testing results in our ability to save lives or prevent injury to our troops, we're confident this is the right thing to do," said Jan Walker, a spokeswoman for Darpa. She noted that pigs without body armour generally died within 24 to 48 hours of being blown up while pigs with the suits did better. The research also suggested that concerns of increased risk of brain injury associated with the armour were misplaced.

"Is this the best they can do after several years of losing soldiers to roadside bombs?" Mr Stephens said of the Pentagon's pig-blasting programme.

-- Muriel Kane

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