Whose Idea Was This? Testing Tasers On Meth-Head Sheep

By on April 13, 2010 in News 8

Photo: Fir0002, flagstaffotos.com.au, GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

You definitely can’t make this stuff up. Come on PETA, forget about the rich bitches in fur coats, get these sheep into rehab and away from the psycho scientists who dreamed up this “experiment,” reported at POPSCI:

Cocaine is a hell of a drug, but getting shocked with a Taser while riding high on methamphetamines probably beats any white-knuckled cocaine experience hands down. And that’s exactly what happened to some lucky sheep in a new study that tested the effects of Tasers on meth-addled targets, funded in part by Taser International.

There’s at least some scientific reasoning behind all the apparent madness. Growing abuse of methamphetamines has led to arrest-related deaths in situations where law enforcement officers used their Tasers on drug-intoxicated suspects. The latest study was designed to test whether electronic control devices (e.g. Tasers) can lead to dangerous cardiac responses in meth-intoxicated humans, with sheep standing in for people.

The less-lethal device of choice was the Taser X26, a standard law enforcement tool which can fire at suspects from a distance of 35 feet. Researchers shocked sixteen anesthetized sheep after dosing the animals with an IV drip of methamphetamine hydrochloride.

Some of the smaller sheep weighing less than 70.5 pounds suffered exacerbated heart symptoms related to meth use. But neither the smaller nor larger sheep showed signs of the ventricular fibrillation condition, a highly abnormal heart rhythm that can become fatal.

The study that appears in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine openly lists a few caveats. Aside from being partially funded by Taser International, the study authors include two physicians who represent medical consultants and stockholders of the company. One of the two is also the medical director of Taser International…

[continues at POPSCI]

Photo: Fir0002, flagstaffotos.com.au, GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

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  • justagirl

    why use tazers anyway? why not hit dangerous meth users with some kind of tranquilizing dart? so, they iv drip meth into sheep? wow. some scientists are really bored.

  • sanud002

    I haven't ever been a big fan of the use of tasers on sheep or humans for that matter. I feel that there are much better methods of “less-than-lethal” use of force that need to put into practice. For instance, I recently came across a video about a new system the military is using called “Active Denial”. I uses a focused frequency to make a target feel like it's skin is on fire, but as soon as the target moves away, the feeling subsides instantly and no physical harm is done! It's unreal to see. I'll post a link below if you want to view it yourself. I'm almost positive this system was not tested on sheep!

    http://www.ndep.us/Hot-Stuff

    • Hadrian999

      tazers are good for what they are supposed to be used for but too many police think they are to be used at the the slightest sign of resistance, great for stopping violent people without having to kill them, but over used on non violent people.

    • E.B. Wolf

      Yea; a focused Micro-Wave frequency.
      Sure, no physical harm done.

  • oman28

    Maybe we'll end up with lamb roasts that “cook in half the time” ?

  • oman28

    Maybe we'll end up with lamb roasts that “cook in half the time” ?

  • http://disinfo.com Majestic

    Apparently someone at PETA was listening – they just emailed us this press release:

    For Immediate Release:
    April 14, 2010

    Contact:
    Justin Goodman 860-882-2492; JustinG@peta.org
    Robbyn Brooks 202-483-7382, ext. 2202; RobbynB@peta.org

    PETA CALLS ON FEDS TO INVESTIGATE TASER EXPERIMENTS ON METH-DOSED SHEEP
    Cruel and Deadly Experiments Conducted at Hennepin County Medical Center Likely Violated Law

    Minneapolis — After learning about inhumane and ineffective Taser experiments that were conducted at Hennepin County Medical Center on methamphetamine-dosed sheep—experiments that were partially funded by Taser International—PETA has fired off a complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) calling for an immediate investigation into the experiments, which the group believes may have violated federal animal protection laws. A review of USDA records has revealed that Hennepin County Medical Center appears not to be licensed to conduct animal experiments on sheep and other regulated animals, as is required by law, and that the experiments apparently did not undergo proper ethical and scientific review. As a result, the experiments could be in violation of the Animal Welfare Act.

    “Sheep don’t do drugs and don’t resist arrest—and they aren’t good stand-ins for humans who do,” says Kathy Guillermo, vice president of PETA’s Laboratory Investigations Department. “Taser is apparently so dead set on proving that stun guns aren’t dangerous, it’s willing to subject sheep to deadly and irrelevant experiments that may violate the law to do it.”

    In the study, 16 sheep were restrained, dosed with methamphetamines and shocked with a Taser device for up to 40 seconds at a time. At the end of the study, the animals were killed. The study’s authors include Taser’s medical director, Jeffrey Ho, and Donald Dawes, a physician who advises Taser. Both of the men own shares in the company.

    PETA, medical experts, and the authors of the new study themselves have noted that the results of animal studies on the cardiac effects of Taser shocks do not translate to humans and have frequently contradicted results from human studies. This is largely due to the fundamental biological differences between species and the fact that there is a vast difference between tasering humans on the street and tasering animals in a laboratory. Superior, human-relevant data on the effects of tasering are collected via post-tasering medical monitoring and tests on human volunteers.

    PETA’s complaint to the USDA is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.

  • http://disinfo.com Majestic

    Apparently someone at PETA was listening – they just emailed us this press release:

    For Immediate Release:
    April 14, 2010

    Contact:
    Justin Goodman 860-882-2492; JustinG@peta.org
    Robbyn Brooks 202-483-7382, ext. 2202; RobbynB@peta.org

    PETA CALLS ON FEDS TO INVESTIGATE TASER EXPERIMENTS ON METH-DOSED SHEEP
    Cruel and Deadly Experiments Conducted at Hennepin County Medical Center Likely Violated Law

    Minneapolis — After learning about inhumane and ineffective Taser experiments that were conducted at Hennepin County Medical Center on methamphetamine-dosed sheep—experiments that were partially funded by Taser International—PETA has fired off a complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) calling for an immediate investigation into the experiments, which the group believes may have violated federal animal protection laws. A review of USDA records has revealed that Hennepin County Medical Center appears not to be licensed to conduct animal experiments on sheep and other regulated animals, as is required by law, and that the experiments apparently did not undergo proper ethical and scientific review. As a result, the experiments could be in violation of the Animal Welfare Act.

    “Sheep don't do drugs and don't resist arrest—and they aren't good stand-ins for humans who do,” says Kathy Guillermo, vice president of PETA's Laboratory Investigations Department. “Taser is apparently so dead set on proving that stun guns aren't dangerous, it's willing to subject sheep to deadly and irrelevant experiments that may violate the law to do it.”

    In the study, 16 sheep were restrained, dosed with methamphetamines and shocked with a Taser device for up to 40 seconds at a time. At the end of the study, the animals were killed. The study's authors include Taser's medical director, Jeffrey Ho, and Donald Dawes, a physician who advises Taser. Both of the men own shares in the company.

    PETA, medical experts, and the authors of the new study themselves have noted that the results of animal studies on the cardiac effects of Taser shocks do not translate to humans and have frequently contradicted results from human studies. This is largely due to the fundamental biological differences between species and the fact that there is a vast difference between tasering humans on the street and tasering animals in a laboratory. Superior, human-relevant data on the effects of tasering are collected via post-tasering medical monitoring and tests on human volunteers.

    PETA's complaint to the USDA is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.