This is the story that Dr. Jolly West is most notorious for. The one that earned him the most press and attention in real-time. The one the press lambasted him for. The story of a feisty teenage-like creature named Tusko.

Jolly was 38 years old when he invited a crowd to come to watch his latest experiment. Tusko, an adolescent bull elephant, had been purchased from the Phoenix area for $3,500 which would be around $35,000 today.

The day before the experiment, a compressed air rifle was used to shoot a placebo control dose of penicillin into Tusko. He exhibited the expected symptoms “immediate startle response… 2 or 3 minutes of restlessness followed by normal behavior throughout the day.” The real experiment would be the next morning at 8am. 

Show Notes

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SOURCES

O'Neill, Tom. Chaos . Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition. 

https://tulsaworld.com/archive/ex-ou-psychiatry-department-chair-dies/article_4a4081f0-654c-5f31-9a0a-05ce183af38c.html

https://thislandpress.com/2013/07/29/the-electric-elephant-acid-test/

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/feb/26/research.science

https://www.treehugger.com/historical-timeline-of-animal-rights-movement-127594

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Spring_monkeys