Elephant Tusko Dies After Record-Breaking LSD Injection in 1962 Experiment
In August 1962, a 14-year-old elephant named Tusko at the Oklahoma City Zoo was given 297 mg of LSD—the largest single dose ever recorded—and died 100 minutes later.
On August 3, 1962, the Oklahoma City Zoo’s 14-year-old elephant Tusko was injected with 297 mg of LSD, a quantity nearly 3,000 times a typical human recreational dose and the highest ever administered to a living creature, according to Guinness World Records. Psychiatrists Louis Jolyon West—known for involvement in the CIA’s Project MKUltra—and Chester M. Pierce, along with zoo director Warren Thomas, aimed to induce the hormonal surge known as musth.
Within five minutes Tusko fell, seized, and displayed fatal symptoms; attempts to revive him with promazine hydrochloride and pentobarbital sodium failed, and he died after one hour and forty minutes. Critics argue the dosage was scaled to body weight rather than brain size and that the drug cocktail worsened the outcome. A UCLA psychopharmacologist, Ronald K. Siegel, later repeated the experiment using water-borne LSD on two elephants, which survived despite temporary abnormal behavior. The case remains a stark example of ethical breaches in animal research and highlights the controversial legacy of the scientists involved.
Why it matters
The case illustrates how extreme animal testing can cross ethical lines and influence modern standards for scientific research.
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