Sheep + Meth + Tasers = SCIENCE!

[Jasper]

http://www.popsci.com/node/45064/?cmpid=enews041510

"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. "

Isn't it great to be a human?

[Richter]

The entire distilation of my initial response is "FUCK YEW GOAT!"

More academically, I'm (horror pleasantly) surprised that we live in a culture where people who abuse and endanger themselves or others while under the effects of illegal drugs are so carefully watched out for.

[Chairman Risus]

The entire distilation of my initial response is "FUCK YEWE GOAT!"

More academically, I'm (horror pleasantly) surprised that we live in a culture where people who abuse and endanger themselves or others while under the effects of illegal drugs are so carefully watched out for.

[Lies]

Sounds like its a great time to be a sheep! drugs and tazering for all!

[Jasper]

Although the substance abuse in animals these days is shocking.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

WTF is this, PETA?

What are we going to do, load up a bunch of humans on meth and then taser them to see what happens?

I don't know, I guess my sense of species and appreciation for science that could help save human lives is a little higher than some others. Some animal testing is cruel and pointless, but sometimes it beats locking a little girl in a cage and seeing how she does for 10 years without love, and what can be done to fix it.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I say this, BTW, not because I think humans are inherently "better" than other animals, but because I am one and I expect kinship to be primary. Also, I think it is reasonable to expect kinship to be primary.

[Triple Zero]

Yes. Most of the debate with the (more reasonable) vegetarians I know, for example, is about how close of a secondary the non-kin life is, right?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yeah; like, don't eat monkeys, but fish are OK.

Science is harder because the closer of kin the test subjects are, the more useful the results are likely to be.

[Doktor Howl]

I've eaten monkey.  Spider monkey, to be exact.

[BADGE OF HONOR]

I was wondering why sheep since they're not known for their, erm, aggression, but then I realized you have to have something approaching the body mass of a human being, but not so large that going on a meth-fueled rampage would be dangerous.   

[Requia ☣]

I so want to see a herd of meth addled sheep going on a rampage now.

[Eater of Clowns]

I was in Amherst at some shitty little ice cream/hot dog/fried food stand.  I went back to my car to get a bottle of water.  A pickup truck had parked pretty close to the door, but only the cab part was really visible with this grizzled farmer looking dude sitting there.  So I stepped between the two vehicles and then
MRARAMMRGRAAAAAAHHRA
a fucking screech from no worldly creature erupted behind me.  The fury driving it, the pure hatred for me for being in its presence, was visceral.  I turned, expecting some horrible thing and thinking of how I might escape.  In the back of the guy's truck was a sheep in a little metal cage, a dull and bored look on its face.

I've never wanted a tazer so badly in my life.

[Jasper]

In the experiment they sedate the sheep while they are being shocked.  So not only is there no experience of psychological stress that might contribute to a heart attack in a real life case of tazing a meth user, but there are drugs (sedatives) in the sheep that may spoil the usefulness of the results.  So yeah, since the methodology is lackluster, probably skewed to give results that the funding party wants to hear so it's not certain that the results of the experiment will be useful enough to justify the level of cruelty.

I'd totally be happy with this sort of study if it had more promise of delivering usable, concrete results, even if a more accurate study would be somewhat more cruel.

[Freeky]

You know, I personally think that they ought to have used stupid fucking meth heads for this experiment, because if they're stupid enough to tweak, then they should be tazed for it.