Britains Defense Department Let the Goats Live

The Ministry of Defence is considering abandoning deep-diving experiments which induce agonising decompression sickness in live goats after complaints from animal rights groups. Quite right too! Live testing was suspended in March and a review committee of six experts is now examining alternatives such as computer-modelling techniques to duplicate the effects of "the bends" - the often lethal effect of nitrogen bubbles in the bloodstream. The tests, previously carried out by defence research company QinetiQ at a facility in Gosport, involve subjecting goats to various pressures in a hyperbaric chamber.