A while back I said: "I have no doubt at all that officers use or would use electroshock weapons on animals too." I didn't have time to research it and I'm quite sure this is NOT the first animal Tasered. Watch the video to in the sidebar or here very closely. See the spasms that deer is experiencing toward the end of the video. I've watched a lot of Taser videos. It looks and sounds to me like the deer was Tasered, tranquilized, then Tasered again because it bolted from being shot with the tranq, loosing itself from the first Taser.
"police tranquilized, Tasered and safely captured... The deer does not appear to be injured." I take issue with those claims of "safe" capture and no apparent injury. Could they at least cough up some scientific evidence? Any studies done on the effects of electroshock weapons on non-human species? I'm guessing they can't. Those claims don't even meet the junk science requirement.
If it were up to me, there'd be a veterinarian and some police officers headed to jail for animal abuse on this one. Surely, if you or I used a cattle prod on our dogs, we would be so accused. (Oh, yes, there have been cases like that.)
Why don't humane societies strenuously object to police officers and animal control electroshocking animals, shooting dogs, otherwise clearly violating what they would see as abuse if done by an owner? That's simple. The humane societies work with law enforcement officers and they each look the other way at violations from their "partners" (in theft and seizure). Of course, it would be just a tad bit difficult for the Toronto Humane Society to make allegations just now, what with 5 of their staffers up on charges of animal abuse...
Before Tasers, there were stun guns, before that there were stun batons. A stun baton is merely a slightly modified cattle prod and cattle prods were what they used (on humans) before that!
How big is a cow, a deer? A human? I don't know those numbers exactly but I darned well don't want to be shocked by something that could make a deer spasm like that and I most certainly don't want my dogs electroshocked for failing to comply with police directives. Are we supposed to start teaching our dogs "spread 'em" and "down on the ground" in puppy classes now?
They don't get as wild commenting on thestar.com site as on the Houston Chronicle site but I learned a new term reading through the comments... "It
makes every citidiot think they're superman and our society doesn't
have space to share with all these cowardly weaponry super heroes." Thank you Amy, I'm always looking for good new terms and this time I even get to give credit for where I picked it up!
Note to Taser, Inc.: Got a gripe about me using the term "Taser" in this one? Go watch/listen to the video and hunt down the Toronto officer who said it was indeed "Tasered".