WEBVTT - Weaponized Animals: From Fire Pigs to Bomb Bats 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:15.560 Works dot com. Hey, wasn't it stuffed to blow your mind? 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:17.800 My name is Robert Lamb and I am Christian Saber. 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:21.800 Now you're all aware that we war is kind of 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:26.440 humanity's staying. It's our it's our big endeavor. It's wrapped 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:29.840 up in Uh most of our big technological gains were 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.000 great at it. Yeah, it's just ingrained in our culture 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:36.279 and we're not above, of course, inflicting war on the 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:40.360 environment as a whole, and also inviting our our fellow 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.760 animals and other members of the animal kingdom to participate 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:48.080 in our war at varying level, sometimes as weapons. Yeah. 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:52.479 In fact, throughout human history we've used animals. We've basically 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.200 seen them as being tools in the same way we 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:57.240 would see like a hammer or an axe or gun, 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:01.520 right in a way to extend human action in combat. 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:05.880 So today we're talking about weaponizing animals and how it's 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.440 been done and hypotheses on how it could be done. 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:11.480 The first place I want to go with this, though, 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:13.640 is and what inspired me to want to talk about 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:17.800 this is the another patron saint I think of Stuff 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.640 to Blow your mind, Grant Morrison's great work We Three, 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:24.280 which I've read, and I was surprised you hadn't. Yeah, 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:26.200 it's I've I've read a lot of Graham Morrison, but 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:28.360 I've never read that title. I've wanted to for years. 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:29.920 I think it's one of those that, since it's such 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.600 a short book, I was always hesitant to buy it 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.399 because it's I felt like, well, I'm I could get 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:37.679 more comic if I read this other great comic that 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:42.480 I haven't read yet. It's such a beautifully condensed story that, 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.680 even though it's only three issues long, uh, that you 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:47.600 get your bang for your buck with it. It's drawn 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:49.840 by Frank Quietly, who's worked with Morrison on a bunch 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.440 of other projects, and there's just amazing work with like 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:57.760 layering panels to tell the story. But the gist is 0:01:57.760 --> 0:01:59.960 is it's sort of like the size sci fi. It's 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.520 extension of what we're going to talk about today. The U. 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:05.919 S Military takes a rabbit, a dog, and a cat 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:10.360 and mix them into cyborgs that wear exoskeletons so they 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:13.920 can use them on covert black ops. Uh. And they 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:17.120 send them to like kill like Mexican drug lords. Uh. 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.600 And then essentially the story is these these three animals 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.600 get out and they're on the run. All right, Yeah, well, 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:26.560 I definitely want to check it out at some point. Um. Now, 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:29.280 as we roll through these, uh, these examples and talk 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:33.120 about the history of of using animals as weapons, uh, 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:35.400 there's a lot we're gonna end up leaving out because 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:39.000 in the same way that so many human technologies are 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:41.800 tied in with war, our usage of animals is often 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:44.600 tied in with war. I mean, I mean take the 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:47.320 horse for example. The horse is a major Jane game 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.760 changer for war in human civilization and its earliest examples 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.560 it It gave raiders the ability to strike out across 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:57.800 long distances. And you can even look to its transformative effect, 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:01.640 particularly on a Native American ribes who you know who 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:03.880 managed to get buy for the longest without the horse. 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:07.440 Europeans bring the horse and you see tribes like the Comanche, 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:11.000 for instance, who were just just became a completely different culture, 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.960 became a horse centric cultural game change highly adept at 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:19.079 equestrian warfare in the aftermath of that introduction. Yeah, I mean, 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.760 we've used animals for all kinds of duties in warfare, right, 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:25.480 We used them for mounts as mounts such as horses 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:29.760 or elephants. Uh. We've used them for infiltration, rescue, retrieval. 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.600 I wrote um pieces for Stuff of Genius about how 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:37.720 ferrets have been trained to find minds in war uh, 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:40.680 and also to lake cable in particular wartime scenarios where 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:42.640 they're digging tunnels and things like that. So we've used 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:44.960 them for all of those. But in this particular episode, 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.600 we really want to hone in on how we've made 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.840 them into weapons themselves, right, where by either adding things 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:54.480 to them or basically rilling them up in a horrible 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.640 way to assault our enemies with. Yeah. So as we 0:03:57.760 --> 0:03:59.920 roll into this first section, I'm actually going to read 0:03:59.920 --> 0:04:02.600 a quote from the Bible, because this is uh. This 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:04.880 is a Biblical quote that always comes to mind when 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:08.280 the topic of weaponized animals comes up. All right, this 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.200 is from Judges fifteen four in it uh, and involves 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:17.640 Sampson that you know, sort of herculean figure of old Testament, 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:20.280 Samson with the hair, Yeah, yeah, Samson with the hair 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:22.680 the one. Yeah. He gets his hair eventually all shaved off. 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:25.320 He can't, he loses all his strength, but then he 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:27.800 grows it back and he pushes down some pillars, and 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.840 he's saying, in other cases he kills a thousand men 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:33.720 with a jaw bone of a donkey. He's like a superhero. 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:37.200 He's like the Bible superhero. Yeah, he's a he's a violent, 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:42.799 violent man um and in this particular instance, he's engaging 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.560 uh in the weaponization of animals. Says it goes like this. 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:49.520 Samson and said to them this time I shall be 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.880 blameless in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm. 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.640 Samson went and caught three hundred foxes and took torches 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.240 and turned the fox's tail to tail and put one 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.520 torch the middle between two tales. When he had set 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.160 fire to the torches, he released the foxes into the 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:09.120 standing grain of the Philistines, thus burning up both the 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:13.320 shocks and the standing grain, along with the vineyards and groves. 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:16.480 So this sounds kind of fantastic, right, It sounds like 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.240 a myth or is. And I don't know if if 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:22.120 if Sampson actually did this, or if somebody did do 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.360 this with foxes before, but our first piece of weaponized 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:31.919 animals in warfare is in fact using them as incendiary devices. So, uh, 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.039 whether it's done with foxes or not. I don't know, 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.640 but we've got war pigs. Uh. And uh, that's not 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:42.000 just a black Sabbath reference. Uh. In ancient Megara in 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.080 Greece in two hundred and fifty five BC, the city 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:50.599 was under attack from Macedonian conqueror Antigonus the second, and 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:53.599 the mcgarren's used a countermeasure by doing the same thing 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.960 that Sampson did, although a little bit more brutally. They 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.799 rounded up all their pigs, they doused them in pitch, 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:02.520 and then they set them on fire. Then they pushed 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:05.359 them out the city gates and outside the city this 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:07.640 is where the Macedonians had all their camps set up. Right, 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:10.960 So these terrified burning pigs are running around, and they 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.719 run into the camps and they set these tents on fire, 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:17.279 and then the Macedonians road war elephants, and the elephants 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:21.360 were terrified of these burning pigs, as you would be. Uh. 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.720 And the elephants subsequently lost total control and trampled a 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:28.280 number of the Macedonians. Now this is a ballsy move 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.120 for a besieged city. Say all right, we're gonna show them. 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:33.600 Let's take all these food animals we have here, and 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.600 let's just set them on fire and send them out. Yeah. 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:38.640 Maybe they just had a surplus of pigs that year. 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.000 I don't know. I mean they there was a gamble, right, 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.000 I guess they said, hey, we could keep these pigs 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:45.760 and eat them as we would continue to be. If 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:48.880 they won, they could still eat them, right Like, I 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:52.080 guess if there's just these burning pig corpses outside, they 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:56.960 could theoretically drag them back in the incentives for those 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.600 to go out to kill the dying. No one out 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.040 there would guess that I'm the vegetarian on something lay 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:06.040 or night. But yeah, So some accounts say that Antigonus 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:10.200 was so badly plagued by this particular strategy that he 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:14.240 actually started training his war elephants to mingle with pigs 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.679 on a regular basis so that they wouldn't be scared 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:19.000 of them, whether they were on fire or not. I 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:21.160 don't know if he actually like set pigs on fire 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:25.320 and had his animals hang out with these fire pigs. Yeah, 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:29.880 it's inexpensive too, uh. And this was done again later, 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:32.360 not with pigs, but with camels. A thousand years later, 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.280 the Tuco Mongol leader Teamore was said to have used 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:40.520 flaming camels against Indian elephants in warfare. So the same 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:42.360 thing he said, a bunch of camels on fire and 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.680 sent them on their way against these elephants. I'm imagining, 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:48.520 like I think, like most people, if they don't immediately 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:52.960 go to the Hannibal elephant story, which we're gonna get into, 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:55.360 they think of Lord of the Rings and those giant 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.240 elephants that they're writing in that, And I'm wondering why 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:00.400 the elves just didn't set a bunch of pigs on 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:02.400 fire and Lord of the rigs and send them on 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:04.880 their way towards those what do they call those elephants? 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:09.240 They were like they were like elephants variation of elephant. 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.320 It was like, yeah, like some kind of dire elephant 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:15.000 masted on type of thing. Yeah, okay, uh, fun little 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:18.840 aside here, I'm talking about weaponizing a camel um And 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.200 granted this involves essentially the use of a camel as 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:25.240 a mount, but then also as a weapons platform. Uh. 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:29.080 The There's this a Turkish tradition of the Zemburic, which 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:32.680 is essentially camel mounted weaponry. The earliest examples are you 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.600 have a crossbow that's mounted on the saddle, then you 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:39.480 have powdered guns, and then eventually this evolves to feature 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:44.240 rapid fire gatling guns that are mounted on a swivel. Now, 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.040 you didn't fire this while the camel was standing, but 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:49.760 what you would do is you would get the animal 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.520 to kneel and then you would fasten each leg to 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.080 accord to keep it from moving because you're about to 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.120 fire at gatling gun on its back. And I think 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.760 the average camel might be a little bit spooked by that. 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:03.720 That sounds like the kind of thing that would fit 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:05.880 in really well and like a D and D campaign. 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:10.960 Like you've got your proficiency with mounted animals and then 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:14.320 you add your proficiency with like arranged weapons to that. 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:18.600 Mount your mount your gatling gun on a dragon or something. Yeah, 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:20.000 and if you want to see a picture of one 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:22.120 of these, I'll include a link to a post I 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:24.200 did about this on the landing page for this episode. 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.680 So the incendiary animals doesn't end there either. We've got 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:31.760 monkeys doing this in China and not to themselves, yand you. 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:35.160 Rebels in China apparently attacked the Song dynasty in the 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.880 twelfth century, So the imperial army, not the rebels. The 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.120 army lit a bunch of monkeys on fire and unleashed 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:46.240 them into the ends you camp presumably would you know, 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:48.959 to burn down their tents had caused general terror to 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:51.640 just run around and young and spread fire. I've also 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.040 read that during the Opium War in the mid nineteenth 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.280 century that the Chinese were, you know, trying to destroy 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.559 damage the English ships. Uh. And they start by looking 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:04.040 into using fire rafts, and they actually went forward with 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:08.680 a plan to send fireworks laden monkeys onto the boats. Uh. 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:10.920 And to the point that they actually acquired the monkeys 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:15.160 move them to an advanced base. But then some defeats 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.960 pushed the initiative back and nothing never came of it. 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:19.680 But they had the monkeys, they were ready to do it. 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.400 This is gonna be a common theme in today's episode 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:26.000 that we've experimented with using animals as weapons a lot, 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:28.520 and then just before we're about to do it, we 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:30.720 back off and we say, wait, we figured out something 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.720 else that's even worse that doesn't involve animals. Yeah, because 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:36.440 time and time again, it seems like a simple fix. 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.680 It seems like it's just as simple as Samson saying 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:40.800 that Samson saying, Hey, I'm gonna burn them down. I'm 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:42.360 gonna just light some fire on the back of these 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:44.360 foxes and send them on. But then you have to 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:46.280 do all of these steps. You have to do training, 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:48.760 you have to work in the technology, and eventually there 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:53.800 is a better, more simple and dependable method out there. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.600 especially with modern technology. It's really kind of caps off 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.319 around World War Two, which is where we're gonna go next. 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.760 So you get used to setting animals on fire and 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.360 sending them out your enemies, what's the next step strapping 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:06.800 bombs to them and sending them out your enemies. So 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:09.280 a lot of you out there have probably heard of this. 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:11.480 This is the most common example that's brought up with 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.240 the weaponization of animals. But if you haven't, we're going 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:17.400 to talk about anti tank dogs. Now. This is during 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:22.280 World War Two. The Soviet Army UH was training dogs 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:26.000 beginning in nineteen thirties, so actually just before they gotten 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.160 into major battles with Germany, they were training them to 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:33.680 carry explosives towards wide range targets, then released the bomb 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:35.600 and then run away, and then they would have like 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:38.600 a remote detonator for the bomb. What this evolved into 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:41.160 was in nineteen forty one, they started training the dogs 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:44.880 by hiding food on the undersides of tanks, and they 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.440 would underfeed these dogs so they be malnourished dogs who 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:49.840 are looking for food. They basically teach them the place 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:52.440 to find food is under tanks. Uh, And then they 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:57.400 would strap ten to twelve kims of high explosives and 0:11:57.480 --> 0:11:59.920 four pouches to these dogs like in a little backpack. 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:03.000 In fact, recently on social media kind of teased our 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.320 audience with what we're gonna be talking about today by 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.400 posting an illustration of this from from the time We've 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:12.320 landed a very lighthearted place here. Um, starved dogs that 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.440 are laden with explosives. It gets worse. They've been a 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.880 spring loaded trigger sticking up on their back. Right. So 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.120 the the idea here is they train these dogs ago 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.560 looking for food under tanks. They sent them off towards 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:26.600 the Germans. The dogs crawl under German tanks and then 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.000 when they stand up to look for the food, they 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:31.600 pushed the pin into the bottom of the tank. Boom 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.040 goes the explosives and kills the dog. Right. Uh. You know, 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.520 I guess this is better than setting the dogs on 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:43.439 fire because it's pretty instantaneous death. But it's still pretty horrific. Unfortunately, 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:46.240 it didn't quite work out for the Russians as they planned, 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:51.400 because German tanks use petrol and Russian tanks used diesel. 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.640 So what would happen was the dogs would you know, 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.280 they've they're operating more on their sense of smell when 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.200 they're looking for something to eat, so they would end 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:02.680 up heating act to where they came from smelling the diesel. 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.400 They would also run away because of the loud noises 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:08.600 of gunshots and explosions during battle, so they would often 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:11.920 either end up under Soviet tanks or they would dive 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.959 into Soviet trenches and then explode. So okay. The Germans 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:19.000 also caught wind of this from capturing some prisoners, and 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.000 during interrogation, the prisoners were like, yeah, we're training dogs 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.800 and strapping bombs to their backs and uh. So the 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.120 Germans had a policy at this point they would just 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.720 shoot any dogs on site. Once they learned this, so 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:31.959 any dogs that they came in contact with they would 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:34.800 just immediately shoot them from far away. Uh And then 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:39.080 earlier there were border skirmishes with Japan in which Russia 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:42.480 sent mine carrying dogs. They tried to train them to 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.439 open the hatches on the top of tanks and then 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.840 drop the minds in that would explode. Apparently these mines 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.880 were somehow set to explode in proximity to metal, so 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:54.040 the metal of the tanks would would would make the 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:56.400 minds explode then too. So the idea here is when 0:13:56.440 --> 0:14:00.000 strapping explosives to a dog make the task is complicated, 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.200 it is possible. Oh yeah, you can make it even worse. 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.520 The Japan also used dogs in World War Two, but 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.840 instead of giving them little backpacks, they would strap little 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:11.600 carts to them that they pulled behind them that were 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.640 filled with fifty pounds of explosives, and they would detonate 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.880 those remotely. And my impression was, this isn't the situation 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:20.440 where they would let the dogs deliver the goods and 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:22.720 then come back. They blew the dogs up as well. 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:28.000 They reportedly used this when Japan attacked Malaysia and Hong Kong. Uh. 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.240 And then we in the US also tested this. Uh. 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:34.800 We tested it with time bombs though uh. What ended 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.000 up happening was the dogs would end up running back, 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.120 similar to the Soviet situation. They'd run back to their owners. 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:41.960 They never actually made it into battle, and it was 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:46.160 just deemed inefficient. Yeah, they're the US uh briefly flirted 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.920 with the use of explosive dogs. Um. They even started 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:55.000 a trial program at Virginia's uh Fort Belvoir in nineteen three. Uh. 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:59.240 They they labeled them demolition wolves, which is interesting because 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:03.280 the American affinity for dogs. I feel like they they 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:05.800 had to just linguistically take a step back from that 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.600 and say, oh, well, they're not bomb dogs, they're uh, 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:12.800 they're Timolian wolves. Yeah. So, but they were looking at 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:15.720 working on using them as bunker busters. So the aim 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.200 here was to train them to enter Japanese tunnels and 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:23.840 fortifications while wearing twenty pounds of explosives either timed or 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:28.080 remotely detonated by a three d foot electrical wire. So, 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:31.040 as you mentioned, one of the problems dog or wolf 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:35.560 is trailing behind electrical wire. Who just to keep it simple. Now, 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:37.560 as as you mentioned one of the problems, it was 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.200 always worried that the dog would return to the friendlies, 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:43.240 returned to the U. S. Marines and explode, or that 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:45.920 donated dogs would be hard to come by when it 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:49.000 became known that this is what the military was using 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.640 them for. Yeah, and and so this gets kind to 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:53.440 kind of the heart of why I think we don't 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:56.920 see this as much in present day as because it's 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:01.520 just kind of considered barbaric and unethical actually with you know, dogs, 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.240 which are sort of man's best friend, right, and then 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:06.400 that that would be the last animal that we would 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:09.880 want to do this with. Although you know, uh, there's 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:12.960 you We're we're not going to specifically hone in on this, 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:18.440 but the dolphin usage in wartime has been rumored to 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:22.240 have been we should, uh imply that the conspiracy guys 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.480 should do an episode on dolphin weaponization because as far 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:27.840 as I could find, there's no evidence that dolphins are 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:32.360 actually weaponized. They are used by the military, uh for 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:36.840 for you know, research missions or you know, finding minds 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:40.800 or rescue operations, but there's no actual evidence in the 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.120 military denies every time somebody says, oh yeah, you're strapping 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:48.320 like missile launchers to to dolphin backs. Now, not too 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:50.920 long after this whole demolition wolves the scenario, the US 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:55.280 also experimented with dogs his mind detectors, um, and this 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:57.120 is up being something we do to this day. The 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:00.680 US military still uses bomb dogs. You know, we're talking 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:05.479 highly trained explosive sniffing animals, but at the time this 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.520 was a rougher procedure. In the training, they found that 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:12.359 of the minds were discovered by the dogs, the dogs 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:14.879 were actually really good at sniffing off the minds, but 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:17.919 they also didn't want the dogs detonating the minds, so 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.879 they tried to train them to fear the minds, and 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:23.320 this made up most of the dogs been afraid of 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:27.040 all metal objects, including their own food bowls, to the 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:29.760 point where only six of these dogs were ever actually 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:33.159 sent into combat. Only six were able to to to 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:37.760 exit training um with with the correct level of fear 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:40.560 regarding metal objects. Well, you know, I'm in the middle 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:43.040 of training a new dog right now. I I can sympathize. 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.000 I'm having trouble just getting our new dog to walk 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.040 up and downstairs. What's a complicated thing, right, manipulating another 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.760 organism's behavior, like knowing how it is evolved to behave 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.879 and then warping that to your own benefit. Be it 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:58.840 just the benefit of living calmly in a house or 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:02.679 dealing with explode. Yeah, it's sort of teaching them what 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:04.920 the rules of the world are is a lot more 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:08.320 difficult than we would think that it would be. Uh. So, yeah, 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:12.679 we mentioned there's Hannibal's elephants. Those were notoriously used in 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.520 military operation. Uh, there's the dolphins that I talked about before. 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.080 We've got to get to John C. Lily. We keep 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:23.280 talking about this, but somebody just asked me about on 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:25.919 social media if we were going to do something around 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:29.240 telepathy and dolphins, and I thought, we just gotta we 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:31.560 gotta dive right into that John C. Lily episode. Yeah, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.560 we need to order some books and then move forward. 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:37.600 But yeah, I mean dogs are still used today as 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:40.359 recently as in two thousand five, there was a dog's 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:44.520 suicide bomb that was reported in Cokirk by bomber in Iraq. 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:47.199 The dog was killed, but no humans were hurt in 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.600 that scenario. So people are still strapping bombs to dogs. 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.200 And fortunately that we have other explosive sniffing animals like 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.960 I was talking about with those ferrets that are particularly 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.479 good at seeking out minds. I believe there I've been 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:04.200 some excellent projects involving rats as well. Yeah, that makes sense. Alright, 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:06.000 we're gonna take a quick break and when we come back, 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:19.359 more weaponized animals. Alright, we're back. So one of the 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:23.239 most insane stories that I came across when we were 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:29.359 researching this involved bats. Same idea. Strap some explosives or 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:33.879 in this case they are incendiary devices to bats and 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.640 then drop them on your enemy. And it's crazy because 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:38.600 it seems like the one of the last animals you 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:41.719 would choose, right, But apparently it was rather efficient. So 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.240 this was his idea. Okay, Robert, you take the bats 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.159 and you put them into an egg shaped container and 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:50.840 you drop them over your target. It's like a bomb 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.920 full of bats. Yeah. Uh. And it's it's got a 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:57.720 parachute and it opens right so at the level, so 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:00.679 the bats can fly off and they can go and 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.840 land and hide and addicts and barns and homes all 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.119 the kinds of places that bats normally go to. Right. 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:10.520 They're searching for, you know, tight enclosed, dark spaces. Uh. 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:14.000 And then these bats have these explosives on them that 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:18.320 are radio controlled and we set them off remotely. We 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:21.359 actually prototyped this. So this was his idea that he 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:23.480 just wrote in a letter. Can imagine like today, like 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:26.360 I write to Barack Obama and I say, I got 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:29.920 an idea. What if we strap bombs to bats? You know, 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:32.600 like that would just immediately go in the junk pile 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.879 finish the letter, right, yeah, exactly, but no, at that time, 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:39.520 not only did they read it, but they went this 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:42.840 is a pretty good idea and then put it into uh, 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:47.000 put it into prototype, so that they in the nineteen forties, 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:50.520 the U. S. Government actually tested this. They accidentally set 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:53.359 an Air Force base in Carl's Bad, New Mexico on 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:59.640 fire testing with bats. So this task involved basically two 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:02.160 teams here and this is where you can really imagine 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.360 the mini series unfolding, right. So one involved a few 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:08.800 men who had to scout cave throughout the American Southwest 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:13.199 to find both the variety of bat that that they 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:16.160 could use and a place where they could be captured 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.879 in the necessary quantities. So you have to hit that 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:21.280 sweet spot, right. It needs to be something you can 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.560 strap explosives to, but it needs to be something you 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:27.919 can find in large enough amounts. It needs to be 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:30.679 something that you can handle, that you can feed, that 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:33.880 you can store. And that's why they end up deciding 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:38.159 on this Mexican freetail bat. Alright, so we've got the bats, 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:42.159 We've got an egg shaped container form, right, how do 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:44.440