Washington, June 21, 2016 -

Why is the military doing medical training on live animals? California lawmakers are asking.

Reps. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) and Joe Heck (R-Nevada) and nearly 70 bipartisan members of the U.S. House want to know how the military plans to stop using live animals in medical combat-trauma training.

The Department of Defense began scaling back the use of pigs, goats, monkeys, chickens and other animals as part of its medical training in 2015. A letter from Speier and Heck, signed by the others , points to recent research by the Department of Defense that using simulated human tissue rather than live animals is cheaper and provides better training.

“The Department of Defense has the responsibility to provide the best available combat preparation to its medics. But according to its own studies, simulations are more effective than maiming and killing animals for medical training,” Speier said in a news release. "This is a no-brainer and we expect there will be no further delays in ending this barbaric practice."

Eighteen California House members joined Speier, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee. Among them: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) and several members on the influential Appropriations and Armed Services Committees.

The members are asking for specifics on the cost of using live animals versus using simulation-based teaching models, how many animals each military branch used for combat training in fiscal 2015, what regulations or policies still require the use of live tissue in training and what the department is doing to stop using live animals.