PETA calls for investigation into animal use in University of Michigan Survival Flight training

Animal rights advocates say a University of Michigan Survival Flight course that trains nurses in human life-saving techniques is cruel to animals, The Detroit News reports.

The organization filed a formal complaint with the United States Department of Agriculture Tuesday, calling for an investigation into the course, The News said.

In the helicopter training course, students put plastic tubes down cats' throats and into pigs' hearts, Justin Goodman, associate director of PETA's Laboratory Investigations, told The News. Goodman called the procedures egregious because U-M has three other courses that teach the same skills using simulators.

University of Michigan officials said simulators can't always stand in for live tissue. The News quoted a prepared statement from U-M: "Despite the availability of simulators and other teaching aids, the unique environment that Survival Flight is forced to practice in requires these procedures to be performed on live tissue.There is no substitute for this type of training."