The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley imploring him to cancel plans for a two-year study that would test the effects of Tasers on live pigs.
According to a PETA press release, the experiments will be funded by a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The experiments, which UW-Madison professor emeritus John Webster will conduct, involve attaching electrodes to the skin of the pigs and shocking them, increasing the voltage until the animals suffer arrhythmia. The pigs will also be induced into a cocaine overdose before being shocked.
PETA pointed out in their letter to Wiley that Tasers have already been extensively tested on animals and there is already a substantial amount of information available regarding humans who have been shot with less lethal weapons.
