Yesterday I finished the book "At The Zoo" by Dr. Phillip T. Robinson, DVM from the San Diego Zoo (Columbia University Press/2004), and in it he details some of the problems with tranquilizing zoo animals. Starting mostly in chapter #9 (Holding the Tiger) Dr. Robinson tells of the problems of darting or otherwise
"chimical restraint" (as it is know in the zoo business) of the aminals for moving or for medical treatment. The big problem being that even now the exact doseage of tranquilizers is not an percise science.
Concerning Bigfoot, we do not know the dosage needed for darting one. We do not even have a real grasp on the weight of the animal to have a good drug to weight ratio. And some zooalogical drugs are species spaciffic. So if we dart a Bigfoot, we could kill it. Or with too little drug the danger turns to who is working on the Bigfoot as it unexpectedly wakes up.. In that case we would have unimpeachable evidence of Bigfoot ....... but it might not be sutable to been shown on CNN.

Well, Congratulations on finishing your book!

Seems interesting!

Tried to dart a stray pitbull last winter on a -10f day. THAT was alot of fun! We had to follow her around for an hour to make sure she didn't go hypothermic. Never did bring her down, she walked all over the place with her tongue hangin out. A pitiful sight. They finally used a lasso pole thing so we could loosen a very tight collar she had on.

Wayne

See this thread for a "lively" discussion a few of us recently had on this topic.

http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?sho...803&hl=cap-chur

Maybe I always look at the lighter side of things. The first image that came to mind would be sassy shooting up on tranq. Tapping the vien, injecting itself, a big dumb grin and a happy sassy.
Woah be to the hunter who shot him if he only carried one dose :doh: Sassy all hopped up; shaking the crap out of mr big game hunter looking for more juice.

Not that I condone that behaviour but it seems Bigfoot, kids and dogs all share the same ability to mess up any photo op you can imagine.

Now back to your regularly scheduld lives.....

They're right on Bill. Last year we were at the zoo and saw a Pere David's Deer buck that had decided to get into a fight with a 100' water hose. The zoo vet was there next to the fence with the tranq. gun, so I went to ask if we could watch. I asked him if it was easy to bring down a large mammal with a dart. He told me that even if you know the weight and are using the species specific formula you still have the problem of hitting it properly and trying to guess the right amount of dope to overcome the agression of the rut.

He shot the deer with what would normally have worked, had the animal been in a calm state, yet because it was spooked by the hose around its antlers and tangled around the tree not to mention he was in the rut, it didn't work. They finally had to have to guys lasso the deer, then have 2 more help hold it down while they cut the hose off of the antlers. I asked the zoo vet if that was normal for tranq. guns, he said , "Yes, it is a risky business for both the animal involved and for whoever is doing the shooting."

My intution says, I'll let someone else shoot biggie with a tranq. gun, as long as I am far up a tree and am packing big heat.