KITSCOTY, Alta. (Staff) – He liked the idea of electro-anesthesia so much, he tried it himself.
Elk producer Ray Ference said he figured if the nine-volt battery-powered, hand-held device could block the pain of a dentist drilling into his teeth, it should be enough to make an elk impervious to the pain of its antlers being cut off.
“If it works good on humans, I don’t think it would hurt animals,” said Ference, who owns 1,200 elk on a ranch near this east-central Alberta community.
Ference uses the device to run a current through an elk’s head to deaden its nerves when the antlers are cut off.
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The machine was originally designed for humans undergoing dental work. Ference tested the machine on himself when visiting his brother, a dentist.
He said it worked well, completely deadening the pain. And after the session, he didn’t have to deal with the annoyance of a half-frozen jaw. Electro-anesthesia has none of the side effects of drugs.
Ference said he thinks electro-anesthesia for animals will catch on and probably replace electro-immobilization, in which the animal’s entire body has an electric current passed through it.
“I like this machine,” he said.
