Live pigs tied to table and shot in the head by ‘murder hunt’ researchers

Researchers in New Zealand secured live pigs to a surgical table and shot them in the head with a pistol as part of a study into blood-spatter patterns. The government-funded Institute of Environmental Science and Research said the pigs were sedated and treated humanely. The scientists said their analysis is important in understanding human shooting deaths and could help in criminal cases. An animal rights group said they acted cruelly, and urged them to end such experiments.

These incredibly violent experiments are entirely indefensible, given their cruelty, inapplicability to humans and the superior non-animal research methods that are available.

Justin Goodman, of the PETA animal rights group

The study, published in the International Journal of Legal Medicine, involved researchers from the institute as well as two public New Zealand universities. It describes how five pigs were shot from close range with a Glock semi-automatic handgun to record the back-spatter of blood, bone and brain material. Keith Bedford, the general manager responsible for forensic science activities at the institute, said that it uses models and simulations wherever possible, but that in this particular experiment could not get the results it needed any other way.

It goes to the ability to provide reliable, and the most informative, evidence in a court case. It may be critical in protecting someone’s liberty.

Keith Bedford, general manager at the Institute

Science New Zealand pigs