bull elephant
Now, wait. i mean just plain old BULL.
Why didn't they just ask the vets how they sedate animals for transport? The large animal vets who DO THIS FOR A LIVING might be the subject matter experts to ask, right?
For example, a tranquilizing drug called Xylazine comes in 100mg/ml strength in a 50ml vial, and is rapidly absorbed intramuscularly. At a dose of about 0.25mg/kg where an adult african BULL elephant might weigh 5000kg (or more), they load a dart with 1250mg (12.5ml, not very much to that big pachyderm) and they even make a special dart rifle for the purpose --who woulda thunk it???--- and fly over Dumbo in a helicopter and fire.
Now, as the head large animal vet at the National Zoo in WashingtonDC once told me, 'If you can't hit an elephant in the a$$ at 100 yards with a scoped rifle, well..."
The expression on his face indicated the last part of the sentence would be "then you su(& " or something similar.
Twenty or 30 min later, Dumbo takes a nap, and they move it wherever it needs to go using some big machinery, I suppose.
So...
Since there ARE well-established ways to put down almost every animal you would think of using drugs, do we really think the FLA police bought these for elephants?
Food for thought.
C-
edited to add; Oh, and here's the best part! Once the elephant is sleepy, you can of course, kill it off easier OR...here comes the kicker... if you want to preserve this rare specimen of wildlife; xylazine is REVERSIBLE with a drug called yohimbine. Nope, the elephant doesn't even have to be exterminated if you want. Seems like all bases are covered there.
So these new rifles are meant for shooting whom again, Sherrif Beary?