Give the Other Taser Consultants the Old Heave-Ho!
When PETA uncovered Taser Medical Director Robert Stratbucker's paid role as a consultant in University of Wisconsin-Madison professor John Webster's planned Taser experiment on pigs (and his deliberate omission of that fact), the university's All-Campus Animal Care and Use Committee Chair Eric Sandgren expressed his serious concern. He stated that he had believed that one of the strengths of the experiment was that it was independent, and he agreed that Stratbucker's removal from the experiment was "appropriate."
This time, the conflict of interest is represented in the person of Wayne McDaniel, who is a paid consultant in Webster's experiment and who was the primary investigator in two Taser-funded experiments on animals. We wrote a letter to the chancellor of the university saying that we expected the same "appropriate" action in McDaniel's case: He must go.
We substantiated our claims with evidence from John Webster's e-mail (obtained through Wisconsin's open-records law) along with the sworn testimony of Taser Vice President Max Nerheim in a personal-injury lawsuit deposition, and after tracking the partnership with the exposed, ejected Stratbucker, we revealed McDaniel's relationship with Taser as well as his own bias regarding Taser safety. All this proves his predisposition to ensure the validation of Webster's hypothesis that Tasers are safe. There is also evidence that suggests that McDaniel may have been involved in procuring the bull who is being Tasered in a video clip that can still be viewed on the Taser Web site. PETA has asked for a U.S. Department of Agriculture investigation into the circumstances and legality surrounding this incident.
PETA has discovered that a third consultant on Webster's pig experiment is tied to Taser's purse strings. The company retained him as a designated witness for the defense in a wrongful death suit. PETA wrote a letter to the NIJ and to Chancellor Wiley, pointing out yet another Taser influence in this so-called "independent study." Stratbucker's gone, McDaniel hangs on, and now the spotlight is on Dorin Panescu, who has collaborated on numerous publications with Stratbucker and Webster, and who has been retained as an expert witness by Taser International in a wrongful death suit.
Get Active:
Please write immediately to Chancellor
Wiley and to the National Institute of Justice.
Spread the word.
