UW Madison Professor Tests Tasers on Pigs

The stun-gun manufacturer Scottsdale, Arizona-based Taser International markets them as "nonlethal" weapons, although they are suspected of having contributed to, if not caused, the deaths of more than 150 people in North America. Their "safety" has come under fire as the Taser-related death toll mounts. The lightning rod of the Taser stun-gun controversy is a laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where a researcher named John Webster works.

Webster wants to expand his locus of basic research and add to his list of publications. In him, the vested interests (the manufacturer and its clients, the U.S. military, and law-enforcement agencies) have found the perfect partner. They have recognized that it's bad PR to rack up too many casualties and have labeled further experiments as necessary "safety tests." But rather than designing a study that would utilize information available from humans who have been stunned with Tasers, they elected to revert to cruel and antiquated tests on animals. John Webster was the perfect person to satisfy their safety claims, as he is already convinced that Tasers do not cause fatal cardiac arrest.

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