In 1962, Oklahoma researchers gave 14-year-old elephant Tusko 297 mg of LSD, the largest single dose ever administered; he collapsed within five minutes and died 100 minutes later

An elephant in musthPhoto: Canva

In the annals of controversial scientific experiments, few stories are as disturbing as that of Tusko, a 14-year-old Indian elephant at the Oklahoma City Zoo. On August 3, 1962, Tusko became the subject of an experiment that would go down in history as one of the most infamous animal studies ever conducted. He was injected with 297 milligrams of LSD, almost 3,000 times the normal human recreational dose, and remains the living being to have received the largest single dose of the hallucinogenic drug ever administered, according to the Guinness World Records.The experimentThe experiment was carried out by two psychiatrists, Dr Louis Jolyon West and Dr Chester M. Pierce, along with the zoo’s director, Warren Thomas. Dr West was, put simply, a deeply controversial figure. He was a documented experimenter in Project MKUltra, an illegal human experimentation programme designed by the CIA to identify methods of brainwashing, psychologically torturing, and forcing confessions from people during interrogations.These methods included sensory deprivation, hypnosis, isolation, abuse, the covert administration of psychoactive drugs, and various other forms of torture. One of the most famous experiments overseen by Dr West occurred in 1959, when Peter Tripp, a radio DJ, attempted to break the record for the longest time to stay awake. Tripp went without sleep for 8 days 9 hours, causing his mental state to temporarily deteriorate into what doctors labelled ‘nocturnal psychosis’, as per the report.Dr West and Dr Pierce were trying to induce Tusko into a state known as ‘musth’, an aggressive, hormonal surge during which bull elephants secrete a sticky fluid (temporin) between the eyes and ears. However, their experiment did not achieve the outcome they were hoping for.The tragic outcomeFive minutes after the injection, Tusko trumpeted once, fell over, and defecated. He then suffered a crippling seizure; his eyes rolled back and closed, his legs became stiff, he bit his tongue, and his breathing became laboured, according to the report.

An elephant in musth

The doctors administered a large dose of the antipsychotic drug promazine hydrochloride, in addition to a dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital sodium; however, these drugs were not effective in reviving Tusko. Sadly, one hour and forty minutes after being injected with the LSD, Tusko died.Some researchers believed that the doctors’ fatal mistake was scaling up the dose in proportion to Tusko’s body weight instead of his brain weight, and without considering his metabolic rate. Others attributed Tusko’s death to the combination of drugs he was administered during his seizure, as per the report.West and Pierce concluded in their research paper titled ‘Lysergic Acid Diethylamide: Its Effects on a Male Asiatic Elephant‘, “It appears that the elephant is highly sensitive to the effects of LSD, a finding which may prove to be valuable in elephant-control work in Africa.”A later replicationIn an effort to prove that the LSD alone had not caused Tusko’s death, a psychopharmacologist from UCLA, Ronald K. Siegel, repeated the experiment on two elephants and shared the study result in the paper ‘LSD-induced effects in elephants: Comparisons with musth behavior‘. He administered equivalent doses (in terms of milligrams of LSD per kilogram of body weight), but he mixed the LSD in the elephants’ drinking water instead of injecting it. Both elephants survived unharmed, though they did exhibit abnormal behaviour for several hours.The researchers’ legaciesAfter the experiment on Tusko, Dr West continued his work for the CIA. Later in the same year, he was appointed as the psychiatrist to Jack Ruby, who murdered Lee Harvey Oswald two days after Oswald was accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy. West suggested that Ruby be interrogated under the influence of sodium thiopental and hypnosis, according to the Gunniess World Record report.Dr Pierce left such sinister experiments behind him; he went on to become the founding president of the Black Psychiatrists of America and spoke on racism in the country, coining the term ‘microaggression’. He also became a senior consultant for the children’s TV show Sesame Street.A dark chapter in scienceThe story of Tusko the elephant remains a dark chapter in the history of scientific experimentation. It raises profound ethical questions about the treatment of animals in research and the boundaries of scientific inquiry. While the experiment yielded some data about the effects of LSD on large mammals, it came at the cost of a life and left a legacy of controversy that endures to this day.Tusko’s story is a reminder that not all scientific progress is achieved ethically, and that the pursuit of knowledge must always be balanced against the welfare of the subjects involved.