Essay: Thinking Animal Thoughts

The dogs would die anyway. They would be strays, caged in shelters, ready to be "put to sleep." The idea was that the Defense Department's new Wound Laboratory would pay about $80 for each dog. When the time came for research to proceed, the dogs would be anesthetized with pentobarbital, suspended in nylon mesh slings and shot with a 9-mm Mauser from a distance of twelve or 15 feet. The dogs would then be carried into a lab, and people studying to be military surgeons would examine the damage and learn something about gunshot...

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