#1: Elephants on Acid (Comments)

"Very well-researched and delivered in an engaging, breezy, wink-wink tone similar to that of Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg's Why Do Men Have Nipples?, this will likely be enjoyed equally by science buffs and casual aficionados of the curious. One of the finest science/history bathroom books of all time."
-Kirkus Reviews

OTHER BOOKS BY ALEX BOESE

#1: Elephants on Acid

What happens if you give an elephant LSD? On Friday August 3, 1962, a group of Oklahoma City researchers decided to find out.

Warren Thomas, Director of the City Zoo, fired a cartridge-syringe containing 297 milligrams of LSD into Tusko the Elephant's rump. With Thomas were two scientific colleagues from the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine, Louis Jolyon West and Chester M. Pierce.

297 milligrams is a lot of LSD — about 3000 times the level of a typical human dose. In fact, it remains the largest dose of LSD ever given to a living creature. The researchers figured that, if they were going to give an elephant LSD, they better not give him too little.

Thomas, West, and Pierce later explained that the experiment was designed to find out if LSD would induce musth in an elephant — musth being a kind of temporary madness male elephants sometimes experience during which they become highly aggressive and secrete a sticky fluid from their temporal glands. But one suspects a small element of ghoulish curiosity might also have been involved.

Whatever the reason for the experiment, it almost immediately went awry. Tusko reacted to the shot as if a bee had stung him. He trumpeted around his pen for a few minutes, and then keeled over on his side. Horrified, the researchers tried to revive him, but about an hour later he was dead. The three scientists sheepishly concluded that, "It appears that the elephant is highly sensitive to the effects of LSD."

In the years that followed controversy lingered over whether it was the LSD that killed Tusko, or the drugs used to revive him. So twenty years later, Ronald Siegel of UCLA decided to settle the debate by giving two elephants a dose similar to what Tusko received. Reportedly he had to sign an agreement promising to replace the animals in the event of their deaths.

Instead of injecting the elephants with LSD, Siegel mixed the drug into their water, and when it was administered in this way, the elephants not only survived but didn't seem too upset at all. They acted sluggish, rocked back and forth, and made some strange vocalizations such as chirping and squeaking, but within a few hours they were back to normal. However, Siegel noted that the dosage Tusko received may have exceeded some threshold of toxicity, so he couldn't rule out that LSD was the cause of his death. The controversy continues.

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Total Comments: 60

Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.

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I'm dubious about this presentation:

(a) any scientist (and zoo director) would start with small doses and work up, before giving some mega-dose.

(b) LSD selectively acts on a small part of the brain; you don't need to give a large creature much more than a small one. It's like saying that tall people need to be given longer books to read.

(c) My understanding from MKULTRA results was that LSD is not toxic (though I guess you could certainly drown in it if thrown into a vat

If true, this is a cruel experiment whose results could have been attained more humanely. (Why use a dart, instead of just adding a bit to some water while the elephant was drinking it?)
Posted by not-just-yeti in Blacksburg, VA on Wed Nov 14, 2007 at 07:52 AM

why inject elephants with LSD?leave the poor animals alone you want to make them a part of the narconon project?
Posted by narconon in Russia on Thu Nov 22, 2007 at 07:41 AM

incredible poor animals
Posted by niha in romania on Thu Nov 22, 2007 at 07:43 AM

Mmm hmm, you hit the nail right on the ole' head there John. Google Louis Jolyon West together with cia or mkultra or bluebird or mkdelta or mksearch or mknaomi etc.
Posted by sfrahm on Fri Dec 28, 2007 at 09:34 PM

So we will see elephants soon in drug rehab treatment?
Posted by Mary-anne davis on Thu Jan 03, 2008 at 01:39 PM

This looks more like a bad joke. I really hate these experiments on animals. Why did they really need to try to give LSD to an elephant??? What will they do now?
Posted by Drug rehab on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 02:41 PM

Well… this is not funny… they should have better gave to the poor animals some herbs and vitamins … really…at least that would have helped them!
Posted by Ada Wakeman in Phoenix on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 07:05 PM

WOW most of you people react ridiculously.

Is it a contradiction to say both there is no evidence of a drugs benefit to me, so it can't be considered good, yet show no explicitly linked proof to a drugs negativity and call it bad.

This animal was given both LSD and sedatives/tranquilizers from my understanding. Given that, there is no way to say for certain it was the LSD.

People have stated within here about programs like and including the MKULTRA program. They EXTENSIVELY tested the effects on mostly willing volunteers, some to the same extent as said elephant.

Given that, and given the fact that sedatives CAN kill both humans and animals alike with overdose' how can you really sit here and demonize something you truly aren't anymore sure about then most of us.

Yes it sucked this elephant had a bad trip.
Yes it sucks that these people committed this act.

To answer the question what knowledge have we gained?

We now have an answer to that question that apparently baffled these scientists "What will happen if you give an elephant too much acid" They figured out what too much was, and they scientifically documented (to a terrible extent) what infact were the results of doing so.

So now the next moron zoo keeper will instead of actually working out his idea in real life, will just continue to imagine it with confirmed documentation. this way its a thought experiment, instead of a theory talked about till needed to be proved

To that point, you clicked the link, after reading the "shocking" headline -onemorebannerimpressionforthissite-

In the end. Don't do "drugs", stay in school.

Don't trust anyone over 30

Posted by Gergith in Toronto on Sat Apr 05, 2008 at 04:35 PM

So... in the near future we will probably have a drug rehab clinic for pets or any other animals that require drug addiction treatment.
Posted by Cristian on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 02:15 AM

It reminds me of a song by Syd Barret, something about an elephant on acid. Too bad the poor fella, Syd didn't get professional help like in a drug rehab clinic in good time, he truly was a genius.
Posted by Kci15 in NY on Mon Apr 14, 2008 at 11:22 AM

You can't judge this experiment based on today's standards. At the time LSD was a new substance. It was used many times to treat the insane and it's effects on the brain were unknown. The experiment was done in order to test the effects of LSD. Today's ethical standards in the practice of medicine and science were not alway around...in fact looking at the scope of history they are rather recent. Do some research before you condemn someone as a monster.
Posted by Scott in Chicago on Sat Apr 19, 2008 at 06:58 PM

What a very mean experiment, it upsets me greatly. At least I hope today there are no such experiments being carried out on animals. Fair enough if it is something that may help us or animals fight certain diseases etc but this is just shameful.
Posted by drug rehab facility in Phoenix on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 04:41 PM

I just have one further comment.
Can ANYONE explain to me how this even holds a candle in comparison to human testing in WW2?

I mean given that, I think this is a much better area.

At least these men were testing it on an elephant instead of humans

*coughCIAcoughcoughMKULTRAcoughcough*
Posted by Gergith in Toronto on Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 08:23 PM

How is that relevant to anything, Gergith? If this article was about WW2 testing, then people would be talking about WW2 testing. This post is about pointless experiments done on elephants. Is it that surprising to hear people discussing, you know, the elephants?

You're like that person who interrupts a argument saying "Won't someone please think of the starving children in Africa!" when what's being discussed has nothing to do with that.
Posted by Sakano in Ohio on Tue Apr 22, 2008 at 04:23 AM

This really looks like the stupidest experiment I’ve ever heard! I don’t know why humans like to play on God with the animals, just because they are not as powerful as them. And we are calling them animals and we pretend we have a soul and intelligence in advantage? Take another guess!
Posted by Drug Rehab on Sun Apr 27, 2008 at 05:08 PM

this has nothing to do with starving children in africa, and i am sorry you aren't smart enough to see the connection.

I am simply saying, you people are horribly concerned that this experiment was done to an elephant some 40 years ago, when the SAME experiments were done to ALOT of humans...

so to say that this is terrible towards an elephant, and ignore the fact the VERY same thing was done to humans en-mass is absolutely retarded

to bring up your starving kids thing..

it would only be like saying, hey cows are starving, and someone bring up, what about starving kids.. thats the parallel.

I am sorry you are too incompetent to understand that?

how can you stop cruelty to animals if we can't even stop that treatment towards our own
Posted by Gergith in Toronto on Sun Apr 27, 2008 at 05:12 PM

But you don't seem to understand the reason why people are discussing elephants and not the experiments done to humans during WW2 is because this article is about elephants. Not human experimentation during WW2. That's why the people here are discussing elephants. If I wanted to discuss WW2 experiments, I would go to a forum about WW2 experiments and talk about it there, where it's relevant. This experiment was not worse, and it was not better, they were both terrible in their own ways.

I also don't see how this is true: "how can you stop cruelty to animals if we can't even stop that treatment towards our own." The obvious answer is to stop being cruel to both humans and animals. It's not mutually exclusive, you know.
Posted by Sakano in Ohio on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 04:35 AM

Imagine elephants following a drug addiction treatment... That would be absolutely hilarious... But of course, a joke is good, but that does not mean I support drug experiments on animals... don't really see the point in such experiments.
Posted by Cristian on Mon Jun 23, 2008 at 08:54 AM

Here's a thought. An elephant doesn't weigh nor have a brain 3000 times larger than a human's. Maybe if they gave him a dose 40 times larger he wouldn't have tripped to death.
Posted by Ted H in Concord, NC on Sat Aug 23, 2008 at 07:43 PM

i think what happened is the extra large dose made him trip extra hard, so he was acting quite anxious and aggravated, more than usual. so they freaked out and gave him a bigger than normal dose of tranquilizer, causing him to overdose... i doubt the LSD killed him...
Posted by justsumguy on Mon Aug 25, 2008 at 04:12 PM

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