USA: PETA, an organisation that promotes animal rights, has urged Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to end the Pentagon's use of animals in radio frequency research to try and understand the mysterious "Havana Syndrome" that has been affecting US diplomats.
The activists stated in a letter on Monday that the experiments are not only "cruel and wasteful but also, frankly, futile," citing a recent US Office of National Intelligence report.
The Havana Syndrome experiments, which involve exposing monkeys to pulsed microwave radiation and bombarding ferrets with radio-frequency directed energy, are said by PETA to have no medical value.
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They cited numerous academic works that acknowledged how challenging it is to apply research findings from animal models to people, particularly when it comes to the brain.
The US Army Medical Research and Development Command is said to be responsible for over 2,000 allegedly illegal weapon-wounding tests, which were allegedly outlawed before 2020. The military is said to have classified the experiments after leaking their existence to PETA.
A recent ODNI report that deemed it "very unlikely" that either a directed energy weapon or unintentional radio frequency exposure had caused the illness was cited by PETA as evidence that such tests would be useless in determining the cause of Havana Syndrome.
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Numerous members of the US government have reported suffering from an unidentified illness with symptoms like nausea, headaches, ringing in the ears, dizziness, and memory loss. It first appeared in 2016 at the recently established US diplomatic facility in Cuba, but American officials have since reported it all over the world.
Some intelligence agencies continue to believe radio frequencies could be the culprit, even though the seven intelligence agencies that contributed to the ODNI report do not believe any foreign adversary could have access to a weapon that could cause the constellation of symptoms seen in Havana syndrome patients.
As of yet, the Pentagon has refused to stop using animals in its research. As the health and welfare of our personnel are our top priority, the Defense Department's "foremost concern remains providing care to affected individuals," the organisation told the Hill in response to questions about PETA's request.
