Animal subjects also played a starring role in research designed to enhance espionage efforts during the Cold War. Surgeons implanted microphones into cats’ ears. An elephant was allegedly injected with a massive amount of LSD. And, in one particularly grisly endeavor, scientists implanted electrodes into the brains of six dogs in an attempt to control their movement and turn them into remote-controlled assassins.
The goal of that last initiative, Subproject 94, which took place in 1961 and 1962, “was to examine the feasibility of controlling the behavior of a dog, in an open field, by means of remotely triggered electrical stimulation of the brain,” according to heavily redacted documents declassified in 2002.
Perhaps more remarkably, the experiments were largely successful. “You could, in fact, remotely control the behavior of these animals, especially using positive feedback,” says John Lisle, a historian and author of the book Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MK Ultra.
The project did face some setbacks. Dogs developed infections and researchers struggled to find a suitable secluded space to test out their mutant puppies. The agency cancelled Subproject 94 before the technique was ever used in a real operation. Yet by the end of the program, Lislle says, the CIA was weighing the creation of even bigger, braver remote-controlled mercenaries: bears, yaks, and even man himself.