TASER Announces Wildlife Management Stungun

cylonlover writes "At this week's SHOT Show in Las Vegas, TASER introduced its TASER Wildlife Electronic Control Device (ECD) that has been developed as an alternative tool for less effective methods of animal control used by wildlife professionals like chemical or acoustic repellents. The wildlife specific model is a three-shot, semi-automatic that can deliver a pulse from up to 35 feet (10.6 m) away and is designed for use on large animals like bears and elk."

Comments

Don't Tase Me Bro

[Cryogenic Specter]

Bears? Really? I may be wrong, but it's my understanding that after you let go of the trigger the person (or in this case, animal) is fine. It seems to me like this would just really piss off a bear and I don't know that they would run away or come after you. I want to see a video of this experiment! :)

Re:Don't Tase Me Bro

[wiedzmin]

PETA will be all over this if you try to actually test it on an animal. You'll need some volunteer sumo wrestlers.

Re:Don't Tase Me Bro

[savvysteve]

Should it be Don't Tase Me Bear?

Re:Don't Tase Me Bro

[Locke2005]

My dog accidentally got across the electric fence. She yelped like a little puppy and ran several miles away. I had to drive around in the car to find her and coax her to come home. I suspect this would have a similar effect on bear, it would have a very strong aversion to approaching you in the future. That's the way instincts work.

Re:Don't Tase Me Bro

[nut]

Anecdotal evidence is not proof of a rule. If you kick a dog it might run or it might turn and bite you.

Re:Don't Tase Me Bro

[Anonymous Coward]

Anecdotal evidence is not proof of a rule. If you kick a dog it might run or it might turn and bite you.

I fail to see your point. If you kick a dog, it might also blow up, turn into a pound of sugar, yell at you in greek, or do any number of possible things.

Parent had an observation: He observed an animal running away after being shocked. ("My dog accidentally got across the electric fence")
Parent presented a hypothesis: Animals don't like getting shocked, and would probably avoid being shocked again due to instincts. ("I suspect this would have a similar effect on bear, [...]That's the way instincts work.")
You went off on a tangent: ("Anecdotal evidence is not proof of a rule.")

I never read the following from him:"I decree, lowly plebeians, all animals will run when shocked! It is a universal rule of nature!"

tl;dr: He's doing science, you are being an ass.

Re:Don't Tase Me Bro

[orphiuchus]

Anecdotal evidence is not proof of a rule. If you kick a dog it might run or it might turn and bite you.

That depends on if its a black dog or a grizzly dog.

Re:Don't Tase Me Bro

[Amorymeltzer]

Depends where you hit 'em. Bears tend to be large and pretty hefty. Still, I've used electric bear fences whilst backpacking to great effect. The jolt is really quite (excuse the pun) shocking, but it's something your average human can withstand for a dozen or so seconds (all the males would take turns seeing how long we could hold on for, all the females shake their heads at the stupidity). When bears go around sniffing for food, though, they follow their nose. Their wet, highly sensitive nose. You shock that thing and they'll never come back.

Moral of the story: When tasing a bear, aim for the nose.

Re:Don't Tase Me Bro

[Locke2005]

Right, that's why porcupines became extinct many years ago because sticking quills into bears' noses when they are trying to eat you only pisses the bears off!

sooo it's smart?

[pbjones]

so can I buy one to protect me from 'bears' and accidentally use it to TASER a shop owner?

Re:sooo it's smart?

[flaming error]

Yes, so think twice if you ever see a bear approaching you on horseback.

The Mighty TASER

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

A Taser is not some kind of sophisticated ray gun or phaser. It's an extended range cattle prod. People tend to forget this.

The primary purpose of all tasers is to make money for the TASER company. People _really_ tend to forget this. TASER pushes like hell for your police forces to carry cattle prods around with them for use on human beings. It publishes promotional and supportive material and research, and lobbies against all naysayers.

Now, you may be inclined to think that tasers are a "good idea". Some law enforcement officers might think so too. But the bottom line is taser adoption means our law enforcement officers are carry around human-cattle prods to zap people into compliance.

In my opinion taser adoption is hugely damaging to the relationship between law enforcement and the general population. If you watch video of places like Pakistan you see police beating people's legs with long bamboo canes in one shot, and farmhands driving cattle with them in the next frame. The taser is only a slightly more refined version of this relationship. You cannot expect citizens to respect people who carry around implements to herd them about, and several high profiles cases of tasers use show that officers do you them in this way, unsurprisingly as this is exactly what the technology was originally developed for.

Tasers have a place in riot control and other situations where officers inherently must use violence. But they are not appropriate equipment for everyday use when officers interact with the general population. They are most certainly NOT appropriate for private security companies or individuals. Attempts to apply them to such situations, or to these wildlife management scenarios, are purely an excercise in expanding TASER's profits, not improving society.

Re:The Mighty TASER

[sjames]

Tasers would be great iff they were used exclusively as a less lethal alternative in situations where the officer would otherwise resort to using his gun. Unfortunately, that isn't how they are used at all. Quite rapidly they get used in situations where the baton might be justified. Shortly thereafter because pulling the trigger repeatedly on a taser doesn't feel as brutal as beating someone with a stick, they end up getting used when the baton would seem excessive. Eventually you end up with people being zapped because they didn't show enough deference.

Now they wish to deploy this new bigger version for bears. I'm guessing they didn't test this on volunteer bears who signed an informed consent document. They either zapped real bears who were in captivity and not in any way threatening anyone or they are endangering people now by making claims substantiated by nothing but a guess.

Re:The Mighty TASER

[Amorymeltzer]

Tasers have a place in riot control and other situations where officers inherently must use violence.

A lot of the areas where tasers have been rolled out are places where violence is high. Quiet suburbia may opt for them to avoid having guns around, but most are i dangerous neighborhoods, where officers are (comparatively) regularly discharging their weapons. In almost all cases, taser use has done two things:

1. Dramatically reduced the number of deaths and injuries amongst both officers and civilians
2. Dramatically increased the number of incidents involving use of force.

Which is a problem. Rolling out tasers makes the cops more likely to resort to using force, knowing it is non-deadly, but it also saves hundreds of lives (and money via lawsuits, etc.). It can be difficult to work past the problem, but research indicates that when properly trained, including having been tased themselves, officers are vastly more likely to use them properly.

GQ has a good writeup, but their web interface sucks so I ain't finding it.

Re:The Mighty TASER

[Nutria]

taser adoption means our law enforcement officers are carry around human-cattle prods to zap people into compliance.

As opposed to... what?

• Batons? Rodney King.
• Pepper spray? Ineffective.

Re:The Mighty TASER

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree, individuals are much better off with a 9mm.

Designed for what exactly?

[Anonymous Coward]

"designed for use on large animals like bears and elk"

Also on fat fucking Americans.