If a dog is actively attacking a person, will the electricity from a taser pass through to the person? I’m just curious.
If the person’s life is at stake, I think it wouldn’t matter much, but just wondering.
What are the odds it would stop a dog?
If the dog is touching the person than yes. It probably would stop a dog but I wouldn’t use one once the dog has come into contact with me.
There was a horrific attack in Florida yesterday. I am thinking to myself “what could I have done to help save this person’s life if it happened in front of me?” It was a matter of life and death.
To keep yourself safe you’d have to tase the dog before it got to you. So depending on how the attack happens that may or may not be feasible. If one were to tase the dog after it has made contact there is potential to do damage to yourself or even cause your own death depending on health status and if the path of electricity goes through your heart or not.
Getting shocked is no joke and it is highly advised to go to the doctor after any incident. I, don’t necessarily do this every time I manage to shock myself at work (I’m an electrician) but I also wouldn’t risk tasing myself in a dog attack. Nor would I tase a dog that is touching another person while attacking them. You could kill the person. I would however, kick the heck out of the dog.
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How could one help this poor woman who was being torn apart? There was a more graphic description of her injuries than what is reported here, like missing chunks of her legs.
A pack of loose pitbulls and mastiff mixes. A total of six people were injured with the woman having the most severe injuries. I really hope the owner of the dogs serves some serious jail time for this and I hope the dogs are euthanized.
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Honestly, there’s a chance with a single dog to stop a mauling but a pack? Unless you have more people then dogs in said pack, I think you are seriously screwed. I’ve tried to stop my own two 20# and 30# dogs from mauling a litter of baby bunnies they found and it was ridiculously almost impossible. You get one dog to stand down and the other dives in. You get that dog to stand down and the first dives back in. Repeat until hoarse and exhausted.
People need to go to jail when their dogs get loose and attack. Nothing else will stop this.
They pushed open a patio door that “wasn’t quite closed”. That’s complete and utter negligence and laziness. That deserves prison time. Hard prison time. This dog owner’s laziness and sloppiness caused this woman–and almost certainly her dog’s–lives. Even if this poor woman doesn’t die, her life will never be the same because of her sloppy ass lazy neighbor. That’s should be criminal.
Ps. One dog looked like a bulldog, complete with dwarfism gene, another looked like a beefy boxer type.
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A Taser would stop one dog, but not an entire pack. Frankly, I don’t know that anything short of a bullet will stop a dog in the pack-kill mentality. One dog, caught in the frenzy of the prey drive, is almost impossible to deal with, but five or six? Impossible.
So the attack you’re talking about no a taser is a bad idea.
A bullet maybe, if you have really good aim. A man killed his neighbor with a crossbow trying to save him from a dog mauling just a few days ago. The most reliable way to stop a dog mauling seems to be for a police officer to shoot the attacking dogs with a gun.
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I COMPLETELY agree. A group of bully breeds/mixes, uncontrolled, pack mentality, irresponsible asshole of an owner. :mad:
This is criminal negligence - and there is ZERO reason to own a “pack” like this with NO control over them, and no responsibility. The fact that a “not quite closed door” resulted in an almost fatal attack - and multiple injuries to others trying to intervene?
They should throw the book at the damn owner and euth all the dogs, immediately.
That poor woman…
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Totally agree.
I also don’t think a taser would amount to much help with a pack.
In most situations touching someone who is actively being tased will not “transfer” or affect you. For the taser to be effective both prongs need to strike the body. The current goes between those two prongs - usually advised to aim for the mid body for best results.
In training videos officers are tased during training you’ll see officers on both sides holding the person while they are being tased.
It could be possible to have some transfer if you touch the person directly between the two probes but that would likely be it for transfer.
That said - tasers would be tough to be properly applied for most dogs. For good result you need both probes to hit well - they usually go about a foot apart so depending on size and position of dog, it’s likely for one probe to miss. That said, tasers also have a “drive stun” feature which is like your stun gun type action. In this action no probes are shot and it would be in direct contact with the person/animal.
Other limitations of a taser would be that most civilian tasers can only hold one cartridge. So if you miss your shot, then you would either have to unload and reload a new cartridge or only have the drive stun feature available.
I do carry a taser on me when walking with my dogs, but know there would be many limitations for successful usage of it against most other dogs. I carry it more for people than animals but it’s possible it would be useful depending on situation.
Huh, learned something new. The taser is its own closed circuit. Can’t wrap my brain around that (I like to over think simple circuits.) but I’ll hit the “I believe button.”
Dont think that you are 100% correct in this. (Electrical engineer working in the power industry here. A major part of my work is incident investigation -including electric shocks.)
It would really depend on the person’s body and how it was reacting to the shock. The two prongs are required to “close the circuit” to allow electricity to flow - but that doesnt restrict the current flow in the body to just that location.
Humans are really good conductors but most people are not generally wearing insulating footwear and will ground-out and limit transference to adjacent people holding them. Just because the holders dont “feel” the shock doesnt mean to say that they do not experience the shock - humans have a limit below which they do not feel electricity. If memory serves me correctly - and it does depend on whether it is DC or AC and, if AC, the frequency - it is something like 30-40V (AC/50Hz).
EG one incident I investigated, the electrician was caught across two phases on the right arm by a 400V/100A/3-phase circuit and the person rescuing him got an electric shock from grabbing his left arm. Didnt stop him pulling the guy away and doing CPR etc etc but he reporting a “whack”. Our electricians tend to report electric shocks as “a brush”,“pin prick”, “a bit of a tingle”, “tingle”, “a whack”, “sat on my arse in the mud wondering what the heck hit me”.
And I would really caution about using a taser on an enraged dog - there is evidence that enraged persons go through the taser shock. A large long stick works okay
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@RaeHughes you nailed why I can’t wrap my head around it. ETA: what I say below is for others, not you as I’m sure you know all that. 
Ground is ground, and the shortest path of least resistance becomes the ground. Hence having a short in the circuit. But, I think in a police academy training environment the tase is more accurate than when it’s used IRL by people who may or may not have good aim.
Also, tasers “hold” not just from the prongs but because it’s alternating current. You ride A/C so to speak. The current is extremely low but I can’t imagine it feels good as I have been shocked by a generator. 115/400/3 phase.
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what a terrible story - that woman will probably suffer from ptsd. My neighbor called me a few years ago to tell me that there was a pack of dogs in her back pasture and she was afraid of them. I went down there with a hunt whip and they were trying to kill baby raccoons, I cracked that whip and yelled at them, three ran off but two challenged me and I thought for sure they were going to attack. I just kept cracking that whip and screaming at them and they finally left. I heard that they were running the countryside and were eventually all shot by animal control. I truly don’t think people realize how dangerous dogs are , especially when they pack up. I agree - jail time for the owners of the dogs who attacked the woman.
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