Roped moose not affected by Taser attempt

February 15, 2011
Fairbanks Daily News Miner

FAIRBANKS — Biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have failed in their attempts to Taser a cow moose roaming a Fairbanks neighborhood with a rope around its neck, so they decided to let nature take its course.

The moose was Tasered Feb. 4 in the Hamilton Acres subdivision in east Fairbanks, with the hope it would be stunned enough the rope could be removed. Biologists used a special wildlife Taser shipped from Southeast, but the instrument did not disable the moose.

The rope remained after a group of good Samaritans pulled the moose out of the Chena River on Jan. 2. It had fallen through the ice.

“We got a couple shots at her, but we couldn’t get both probes to stick, probably because of her thick winter hair,” said Fairbanks area biologist Don Young.

Biologist Tony Hollis was the trigger man. He shot the moose from 25 feet, the maximum distance for the Taser to be effective.

“We just could not get a good shot at 25 feet,” Hollis said.

The moose “showed no reaction as if it had got shocked,” he said. “It was more of a reaction to hearing the Taser go off — it sounds like a cap gun going off — and she took off.”

At that point, biologists decided to leave the cow, which was accompanied by a calf. After watching the cow during the course of two days while they tried to get in position to Taser the moose, biologists determined the rope is not hindering her ability to breathe, eat or walk.

“She’s not inhibited by the rope,” Young said. “We watched her feed and it doesn’t bother her. The rope is not hanging up on anything. It tracks right between her legs. It’s a pretty short rope.”

It was the first time state wildlife officials used a Taser on an animal in the northern region of the state, Hollis said. Officials in Southcentral and Southeast have experimented with the Taser on animals, he said.

“Using a Taser was attractive because, in theory, it drops the moose, you can run up to it, remove the rope and let her go,” Hollis said. “That was the plan.”

Biologists don’t want to use drugs to tranquilize the moose because if something went wrong and the moose died, or it was hit by a car and killed within the next few months, the meat would not be salvageable. The meat of drugged animals can’t be eaten for 90 days.

There’s a chance the rope could get caught on a tree limb and be pulled off, Young said. The rope also is “kind of rotten,” according to the man who put the loop around the moose’s neck during the rescue operation and who contacted Young.

The cow appears to be in “really good shape” Young said.

“She looks like she’s pregnant,” he said. “She’s definitely carrying some weight.”

Taser launches new stun gun for wildlife

Published in the Toronto Sun, under the banner NEWS-WEIRD


January 21, 2011
By QMI Agency - Toronto Sun

Problem bear sneaking around your trash can? Don't get mad, get a Taser.

Taser International, the company known for making its stun gun, widely used by law enforcement agencies in North America, has unveiled a new weapon that will soon be available for wildlife managers.

The Taser Wildlife Electronic Control Device is a three-shot, semi-automatic Taser designed specifically to incapacitate large animals from as far away as nearly 11 metres.

With a retail price of $1,999.95, the wildlife stun gun is said to be nearly indestructible by the elements, able to survive "sea spray, rain, dust, electrostatic discharge and even short-term water submersion."

In a release about the product earlier this week, Taser International said that "published research has shown that wildlife managers sometimes need to use tools to modify animal behaviour to avoid dangerous human-animal conflicts and the loss of animal life."

Wildlife Taser NOT RECOMMENDED by Alaska law enforcement

Jan 21, 2011
Craig Medred, Alaska Dispatch

An Anchorage Police Department officer zapped a black bear with his Taser in Alaska's largest city last summer. The 100,000 volts flipped the bear on its back. The bear got up and ran off.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game then warned that to Taser bears is a no-no, and the APD put out a press release telling people so. Months later, though, a state wildlife official revealed he'd been using his Taser on bears for years in an effort to see if they could be trained to avoid people.

Fish and Game did add the warning that people shouldn't try that trick at home, although bear man Charlie Vandergaw had been using similar training techniques on bears for decades. Yes, Vandergaw used a cattle prod instead of a Taser, but an electrical shock is an electrical shock.

And now, for those who want to get in on shocking bears or other big animals, Taser International in Arizona has just the thing: a Wildlife Taser.

For the weak of heart, Taser's "Wildlife Taser" trumps Vandergaw's cattle prod. The former will knock a bear on its butt. The latter might just make a wild bear mad, though it seemed to work well enough on Vandergaw's semi-domesticated bears.

Fish and Game, however, is sticking to its position that shocking the animals is a no-no. Tasers should only be used by professionals, the agency says.

And the Wildlife Taser has come under attack on at least one blog that reviews the latest high-tech gadgets.

A writer for Gawker Media's Gizmodo notes use of the device wouldn't be limited to bears; it could be used on any sort of big game: " ... from elk to moose, deer and grizzlies. This would be laughable if it wasn't so obviously cruel. Taser has a point -- a very small one -- in that some bears' lives might be saved if fishermen and other adventurers in grizzly country replace the firearms they sometimes use to defend themselves from attack with Tasers. But research about bears shows that they are rarely aggressive, and most dangerous encounters are the avoidable result of human stupidity or bears' desperation, rather than rogue animals inured to humans. As for other animals -- like bison -- there's plenty of visual evidence that it's the people who are the instigators, not the animals. My worry? That this weapon, despite its high price tag (almost $2,000), could encourage a new breed of ugly, empty-headed tourist behavior: will people approach animals they should keep away from knowing that if they have an animal-felling Taser they can get away with it? Given the way regular Tasers have been misused -- with their use sometimes a first resort and then being used to deliver repeated stun shocks to boot -- it's hard to see how this hardware could encourage a better relationship between people and animals."

And, as all real Alaskans and those elsewhere who've watched Discovery's "Sarah Palin's Alaska" know, there are simpler, cheaper and easier means than a Taser for maintaining the proper relationship between people and wildlife. You get a gun; you shoot them (if you can hit them and provided that you possess proper subsistence hunting licenses, you eat them.

Thus end any worries about the animals causing problems.

Taser unveils weapon designed to use with animals

January 18, 2011
The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Taser International Inc. will sell a version of its electroshock weapon designed to control animals that pose a threat, the company said Tuesday.

The Scottsdale, Ariz., company makes weapons that send less-than-lethal amounts of electrical current through the target to immobilize them. The technology is already in widespread use by law enforcement and the military. But this weapon, called the Taser Wildlife Electronic Control Device, is the first Taser product intended to control animals without killing or maiming them.

"Just as our Taser technology is a safer and more effective option to stop dangerous individuals, the Taser Wildlife ECD is an extension of Taser's technology to save animal lives," said Rick Smith, the company's co-founder and chief executive officer.

The device, intended to be used on larger animals with thick hides, has a slightly higher charge output than the Taser X3, which was designed to be used on humans. It has a range of 35 feet and is designed to withstand sea spray, rain, dust, electrostatic discharge and brief immersion in water.

The weapon will be on display at the SHOT hunting trade show in Las Vegas until Friday. It will cost $2,000 when it goes on sale in March. The Taser X3 costs less, at $1,800, but unlike the Taser Wildlife does not come with cartridges.

Shares of the company fell 6 cents to close at $4.75 Tuesday.

Sluggish Sales: Taser International sees new opportunities in wildlife control

June 12, 2010
by John Yantis, The Arizona Republic

Sluggish sales at Scottsdale-based Taser International have the company targeting a new market for its stun guns: wildlife.

Taser and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are testing the guns on distressed or aggressive wayward animals, including moose, bears and deer. Officials say the devices are successful because animals recover more quickly from an electric shock than the more traditional darts containing narcotics.

But animal-rights activists question the stun guns' safety and say the Tasers cause the animals overwhelming pain. Instead, they argue that loud noises such as horns and whistles can be used to run animals off.

They suggest pepper spray for personal safety and installing fencing or applying pepper-based repellents to keep animals away. Lastly, they say the state should require bear-proof enclosures around restaurant trash bins and make it illegal to feed wildlife.

"In extreme nuisance-wildlife cases, large wild animals (without young) can be live-trapped and relocated," the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said in an e-mail. "The safest and most humane way to deal with unwanted wild animals is to leave them alone. With a little time, they will move on. With a little thought, these issues can be resolved without resorting to high voltage."

Taser is familiar with controversy. For years, it has used an aggressive strategy for fighting product-liability and wrongful-death lawsuits over the use of its law-enforcement stun guns.

A sour economy has the company experiencing lower sales recently because of slow demand for its guns, particularly overseas. In April, Taser reported it lost $492,605, or 1 cent per share, in the fourth quarter on revenue of $23.8 million. Taser attributed the 3 percent decline in revenue to a slowdown in international sales that offset modest increases in the U.S.

Taser CEO Rick Smith said then that the company continues to work on diversifying through new software products, such as its Protector cellphone-monitoring system, which parents can use to see who their kids call or text. The company also recently began offering its first multishot stun gun and a video-recording device for police officers, as well as stun guns for personal safety.

Taser is hopeful the wildlife research that it began with Alaska four years ago will help drive orders in a new area.

"With four years of hard work, this now establishes some really solid research," said Steve Tuttle, a Taser spokesman. "We've never really had an agency of this size formally accept it after testing like this."

Tasers have a range of 35 feet and cost $800.

Local animal-control agencies in the past used the guns sporadically for aggressive dogs, moose and deer. They usually deploy them so they can subdue the animals, harness them and move them to safety.

"You'd be shocked how many deer will jump through windows of homes up in Michigan and Canada," Tuttle said, adding that moose tangled up in fences also present problems in some areas. "Nobody will go near these animals, but if they can control them, they'll use a Taser."

The guns are proving to be a viable option for wildlife managers when dealing with angry and confused animals, said Larry Lewis, an Alaska Fish and Game wildlife technician.

"We're finding there doesn't appear to be any deleterious long-term effects to the animals that are subjected to an electronic-control device if it's done properly," Lewis said.

Last winter, he and a supervisor received a call about a yearling male moose with a galvanized chicken feeder stuck over its head. The animal had put is nose down through the top of the feeder and couldn't see well. The situation was bad enough that Lewis shot the moose with a Taser to knock it down. His boss ran over, pulled the feeder off and checked for injuries. Seeing none, he came back to Lewis, who turned off the stun gun.

"The animal got up and ran off," Lewis said. "We didn't have to use drugs. There's always an inherent risk anytime we dart animals. Some of these drugs are very dangerous to work with."

Other methods that can be used to subdue animals include rubber bullets, pepper spray, bean-bag rounds and regular firearms.

The American Veterinary Medical Association has a formal policy against using Tasers, saying they can be lethal and should not be used on cats or other small animals.

When using tranquilizing guns, a large dose of medication is shot from a long distance into the animals with a .22-caliber shell, and it has to hit a specific spot, said Andrew Hinz, Taser director of technical services. He said there is a 60 percent to 70 percent mortality rate when using the guns with large doses of medication.

By deploying a Taser, wildlife managers are able to subdue the animals for up to 15 seconds, approach them and hand-inject the sedative into a specific location. The result, he said, is less impact on the animal's physiology. Hinz couldn't provide a comparable Taser mortality rate. But he said a Wake Forest University study, funded by the National Institute of Justice, showed a low rate of serious injury with a Taser device compared with other uses of force.

He said big moose and brown bears pay little attention to rubber bullets.

The company is receiving calls from wildlife officials from several states in the Midwest and West, where the stun guns could be useful against black bears and elk. He also expects a market to develop in Canada.

"Even ranchers in Montana, where they have their steers, they're looking at the safety of actually using this device," he said.

Lewis has taken calls from as far away as Africa, Britain and the Yukon Territory.

He recently presented his research to peers who attended a workshop in Alberta on the conflicts between humans and bears.

"I went in there fully expecting to be accosted and run out on a rail over this use," he said. "I was really pleasantly surprised. Even the people that I thought would be totally opposed to it actually embraced it and said, 'We think this is great. If an animal's life is saved, we're 100 percent for it.' "

Lewis and the Alaska state veterinarian carry Tasers full time. A select group of area biologists and conservation staff was recently trained to use them, Lewis said. He added that they may one day be used in animal-handing facilities, including zoos, stockyards and research facilities.

"We look at the electronic-control devices as another option for people to use in the field," he said. "It's another tool on the tool belt, basically. I still carry firearms and still use rubber baton and bean-bag rounds and all these other tools that we use, but Taser is now part of our arsenal."