Wildlife taser developed

Although I can understand the rationale for the development of a wildlife taser - as a hiker, I would not mind a weapon that could stop a charging Hippo or Elephant, I am worried about this weapon in the hands of an irresponsible idiot (and lets face it, there are far too many of them out there).

I hope that there are strict controls and licencing conditions before a person can buy one of these - anything that could bring down a large animal could probably kill a human.

A controversial new taser, designed to incapacitate wildlife, has been launched by Taser International.

The Taser X3W is intended for use against animals such as charging bears and moose, The Register reported. Taser CEO Rick Smith said that the device is a safer and more effective option than the current crop of animal control tools.

The weapon is capable of firing three cartridges from ten metres away and emits a 20 000 volt shock.

Link

Electroshock Weapon

An electroshock weapon is an incapacitant weapon used for subduing a person by administering electric shock aimed at disrupting superficial muscle functions. One type is a conductive energy device (CED), an electroshock gun popularly known by the brand name "Taser", which fires projectiles that administer the shock through a thin, flexible wire. Other electroshock weapons such as stun guns, stun batons, and electroshock belts administer an electric shock by direct contact. A shockround is a piezo-electric tip for a projectile that generates and releases electric charge on impact.

en.wikipedia.org...

Taser Reasearch (Lethal and Non-Lethal)

Here is a comprehensive scientific article describing taser incidents. Worth reading:

According to TASER International, nearly 10,000 police departments in the United States have deployed the TASER as a less lethal force alternative in some capacity. Despite the TASER's increasing popularity, serious questions have been raised about the device's physiological side effects; in particular, Amnesty International has reported that more than 300 people have died after being subjected to the TASER. Although a growing body of research has examined the physiological effects of the TASER on animals and healthy human volunteers in laboratory settings, there has been virtually no empirical analysis of “real-world” fatal and nonfatal TASER cases simultaneously. This article examines all media reports of TASER incidents from 2002 to 2006 through a comprehensive review of LexisNexis and New York Times archives. We compare TASER incidents in which a fatality occurred to TASER incidents in which a fatality did not occur and then employ multivariate analyses to identify the incident and suspect characteristics that are predictive of articles describing TASER-proximate deaths.

Policy Implications

Several suspect factors were significantly associated with the reporting of a fatal TASER incident, including drug use (but not alcohol), mental illness, and continued resistance. Multiple deployments of the TASER against a suspect was also associated with the likelihood of the article describing a fatality—especially if the suspect was emotionally disturbed—which raises the possibility that the risk of multiple shocks might not be uniform for all suspects. More research is needed to explore the relationship between mental illness, drug use (illicit or therapeutic), continued resistance, and increased risk of death. In the meantime, police departments should develop specific policies and training governing the use of multiple TASER shocks against individuals who could be in these vulnerable physiological and psychological states.

Link to Article

Didn't check the details but I can imagine that an elephant would need far more juice to bring down to an elk or some wildcat.

reply to post by no special characters


True, I wonder what the amount of volts would be required. The thing is that even 10m is a tiny distance for any charging animal - it would be upon you before you can say "Tesla".

But I prefer the idea of an appropriate stun gun to protect tourists than a game ranger wielding a hunting rifle. I like the idea of a adjustable charge stun gun (ala Star Trek) with a charge that can be set for small, medium or big game.

I would love to have one of these to give to my parents. They live in the wilderness in northern Ontario Canada. The bears get pretty brave around households in the springtime. I would feel better if they had this versus nothing at all. Interesting. I wonder if this would even be permitted in Canada...

An african lion will sneak up till it is at least 30 metres away from it's prey - after that it can cover ground at 10metres per second for a short period of time. This does not allow a lot of time for a taser defence.

Hmmm ... then the hippo. I have been chased by a pair while in a row boat in a bay on Lake Kariba. Definitely one the scariest times of my life.

Hippopotamuses are by nature very aggressive animals, especially when young calves are present. Frequent targets of their aggression include crocodiles, which often inhabit the same river habitat as hippos. Nile crocodiles, lions, and spotted hyenas are known to prey on young hippos.[50] Hippos are very aggressive towards humans, whom they commonly attack whether in boats or on land with no apparent provocation.[51] They are widely considered to be one of the most dangerous large animals in Africa.[52][53]

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by deltaalphanovember


Here is the company's page on it...

Wildlife Taser

They list the range of it as 35feet. I tend to agree with you. Most any animal that means to and is capable of doing you harm can cover 35 feet very very quickly.

Heck, after growing up on a farm you'd be amazed and how quickly a bad tempered hog or bull can cover that distance - let alone something like a bear.

I'm kind of thinking this may turn into another "zap first, ask questions later" type tool from the Taser company.

reply to post by Frogs


That's why (in the US) we have guns. 35 feet? With a good rifle, 1000 yards.

reply to post by StlSteve


You have guns in America? Really? I wish I had one of those new-fangled firesticks that people use to kill so readily.
Guns are why we have so many endangered species. Why kill an animal that is just defending territory or it's young?

I'm sure all those millions of species of endangered plants and bugs are endangered because people shot them all?

That's only the case for big popular animals, mostly mammals, which makes me kind of think your environmentalism runs skin deep. Most species are endangered because we've changed or destroyed most of the terrain they live on. From large corporations running strip mining efforts to millions of poor farmers clearing the rainforest to get some land to grow crops to feed their family with, vast tracts of land and even ocean are being exploited for profit or even just survival. It is a lot of people's faults, and taken at an individual level, their contribution to it probably seems very understandable and reasonable. That is the tricky thing with this sort of problem, and why it's important to not just assign blame to the most obvious and egregious example and act like it would change the future in the slightest.

Double post.

Currently looking up how to delete.

This would be fine for smaller animals. But anything with hide, or large game animals will laugh at you and keep charging..

Nothing like a trusty shotgun with rocksalt if you don't wanna kill it.

But I warn you if you injure a wild animal in the wild the chances of it dying a painful and slow death are enormous. In your drive to save the animals life in defense of your own you may wind up causing the animal more problems than if you just shot it dead when it was coming after you.

You would need tens of millions of volts and a hundred feet or more to make this weapon effective in the hands of a human in a real life situation.

Originally posted by deltaalphanovember
reply to post by StlSteve

 

You have guns in America? Really?

I wish I had one of those new-fangled firesticks that people use to kill so readily.
Guns are why we have so many endangered species. Why kill an animal that is just defending territory or it's young?

You got a source for that?

Do you realize how many species go out of existence irrespective of what we do? Guns are not the reason for animal extinction. Some extinctions can be attributed to human over hunting and poaching, but that has been around since before the gun...And before humans(and even today) species go extinct. It's a part of nature.

I was on a a small fire department in northern Calif.
because the nearest animal control officer was over a hour away the fire department took care of bear problems.

We had three was of taking care of bears.

A 2 inch fire hose with 200 psi water pressure. you can wash a bear down the street.
bear repellent(pepper spray)

And lastly a 12 gage with duct seal replacing the shot charge.
www.rainbowtech.net...

We put three rounds loaded with duct seal and the last two rounds were 12 gage slugs just in case.

I would not trust a taser to stop a mother bear defending her cub.

Originally posted by projectvxn
This would be fine for smaller animals. But anything with hide, or large game animals will laugh at you and keep charging..

No crap, eh?

Using a taser on a real animal is a joke.

I know of bears that have taken .303s like nothing while charging a hunter. There's also been moose that have deflected .30-06 right off of their skulls. Seriously, some dinky little taser toy isn't going to do anything to these animals except piss them off more.