British military surgeons are being sent to Denmark for controversial training on live animals, a practice that is illegal in the UK.

The stated purpose of this training -- which has been nicknamed Operation Danish Bacon -- is for British Army medics to learn to treat battle wounds. When you remember that doctors are to "first do no harm," you have to wonder how they can go through with this.

The pigs are strung up then blasted with an AK-47 rifle or a 9mm handgun; sometimes, a live pig is left to dangle from a wooden frame as a soldier shoots it. Military medics then operate on the animal's traumatic gunshot wounds while it is still breathing. Even if the surgery is a success, the pigs are later killed.

The British Army sends surgeons to Jaegerspris Kaserne in Denmark twice a year to take part in these trauma training exercises. Instead, the army should draw on the latest technology and use human simulations to train.

Eighty per cent of NATO allies have already ended the cruel use of animals in such archaic military medical training exercises. PETA has also filed a complaint with the European Commission against Denmark over the training courses. An EU directive, as well as Denmark's Animal Welfare Act, require that non-animal methods be used to train the military whenever available.

A former US military medical worker – who is now with PETA – states that, compared to operating on animals that have been stabbed or shot, lifelike human simulations are a far superior way of preparing doctors to treat injured humans. Experts said that one type, the Caesar patient simulator (which breathes and bleeds) can be used anywhere.

The UK's Ministry of Defense has strongly defended the practice of sending its medical staff to Denmark the live animal training. Disgusted by the shooting of these pigs in the name of medicine, campaigners are demanding an end to this brutal military training courses