This is yet another example of humans subjecting animals to experiments that are solely related to human problems. Humans create the problems and others become rich by trying to solve them, often using another species for their work. There are thousands of human victims of Tasers who could be studied. There is no proof that what happens to pigs will be in the least bit relevant to humans. Their bodies are completely different from ours. Other species have already been subjects for Taser testing, including dogs
John Webster is being awarded $500 000 of taxpayer money for this project. The Air Force Taser study released this year has already proved that Tasers affect pig’s hearts, so really this is just a repetitive experiment done essentially to keep researchers in business at taxpayer expense.
Animals have been given AIDS, been made to consume alcohol and addictive drugs, been paralysed for use in spinal column research, had so much make-up shoved down their throats that they die, and myriads of other things.
At least one scientist has come out firmly against these experiments.
Researcher won't Work with Colleague Planning to Test Electro-Shock Stun Guns on Animals
For Immediate Release:
March 30, 2005
Contact:
Laura Yanne 757-622-7382
Madison, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Terry Young has pulled out of a planned NIH-funded clinical study that she was to have conducted with fellow UW faculty member John Webster because of Webster’s involvement in an experiment, funded by the Department of Justice, using pigs to test the effects of Tasers. Controversial Taser "stun guns" are dart-firing electro-shock weapons designed to cause instant incapacitation by shooting 50,000 volts into the body. Webster has been given $500,000 to electrocute pigs after dosing some of them with cocaine.
"Had I known of Dr. Webster’s recently publicized experiments with Tasers on pigs, I would not have considered any collaborative association with him, as I strongly object to these experiments," wrote Dr. Young in her letter to university chancellor John D. Wiley, announcing her withdrawal from the study. "I cannot in good conscience collaborate with a faculty member whose experiments on animals are repugnant to my sense of human as well as animal welfare."
Tasers have already been extensively tested on animals—including dogs and pigs—and have caused injuries including cardiac arrest. Because the weapons are widely used by law-enforcement agencies and the military, there is also a large quantity of information available regarding humans who have been shot with Tasers in the years since their introduction.
"It is clear that the limited data expected to result from this sample of extremely stressed pigs will have no relevance to Taser-targeted humans, with their wide spectrum of body dimensions, physiology, age, and other factors that will modify the effects of the Taser," wrote Dr. Young, who has been a UW faculty member for 21 years.
http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=6161