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Where Do Wolf Babies Come From?

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The probe Asa uses looks not dissimilar to the sexual devices people use. But unlike employing, say, a vibrator, which makes use of an electric motor to buzz its way to orgasm, Asa manipulates her wolves with a device that forces ejaculation by applying an electrical current directly.

Which isn't to say that all humans are entirely unfamiliar with the concept. That fact is money in the bank for Eric Forbes, owner of Eros Tek, a Felton, California, company that markets electro-stimulation -- or "e-stim" -- products to the sexually adventurous. Devotees of e-stim say it's a unique, high-tech way to get off. "Some people are into play where they want to control someone else -- so we have a box for that," says Forbes, mentioning its popularity in BDSM circles. "And then some people just use it for themselves." The types of electrodes used vary, depending on how they are to be used. "Do they want something on the surface? Do they want something inserted? We have both."

Forbes' e-stim devices operate on very quick pulses, transmitting peak voltage for only milliseconds at a time. But it can take a prolonged jolt of up to 150 milliamps to induce ejaculation in a wolf. If you apply that kind of current to your finger, it feels about as disconcerting as a strong static shock from a doorknob in the winter. But taking it in the rectum is a different story.

Forbes says the vast majority of his clients use e-stim to enhance orgasms, not force them. He's familiar with the type of equipment Asa has and knows people who've used it, but he says they're in another league, fetishwise. "There are only rare cases where you find anyone who would raise their hand and say, 'Yeah, I'd like to have that wolf ejaculator put in my butt and be forced to come,'" he says. "It's just a brute force trying to get the animal to come. In a human male, that would be really painful. Some people want to submit to that -- there's no understanding of human sexuality sometimes."

Counters Asa: "The procedures -- both the semen collections and the artificial inseminations -- are done under anesthesia, so the animals experience no discomfort. In fact, the very same procedures are used clinically with humans.

"Women are artificially inseminated in just this way," she continues. "Also, men who cannot ejaculate but who want to have children willingly undergo electro-ejaculation. They are anesthetized and semen is collected using the same instruments that we use. These are completely humane procedures."

They may disagree on artificial insemination, but PETA has no quarrel with Asa's other main focus: animal contraception. Though the concept isn't new to zoos, its prevalence is largely due to Asa's work. She and her colleagues at the Wildlife Contraception Center (which Asa co-founded in 1999) have helped develop and implement birth-control techniques for animals.

"There's no such thing as condoms for animals," she'll patiently explain. "Everybody asks that. But it's an amusing thing to imagine." Instead, most animals receive contraceptives in the form of birth-control pills, shots or implants.

And animal contraception is no joke. In 1999 San Jose Mercury News reporter Linda Goldston exposed the seedy side of overbreeding. Goldston found that some zoos were selling off surplus animals, many of which ended up being killed at hunting-safari ranches or living in deplorable conditions in unaccredited zoos.

Asa recently co-authored a book called Wildlife Contraception, slated for publication later this year by Johns Hopkins University Press. "She's led the whole zoo wildlife-contraception program, countrywide," says Lynn Patton, who works with endangered species at the San Diego Zoo, and for whom Asa advised on an implant to be used on giraffes.

When it comes time for Godfrey's electrojaculation, two dozen onlookers have amassed in the Minnesota wildlife center's lab. The audience includes a smattering of graduate students, as well as a clutch of teens from a nearby alternative high school.

In a gloved hand Asa holds a foot-long phallic wand of molded gray epoxy, crowned with a trio of copper electrodes. It is her rectal probe. "It's not a dildo," she reminds.

Godfrey lies on his side, knocked out and keeping his ketamine visions to himself. Three scientists take hold of the wolf's legs as Asa lubes her probe. When she inserts it into Godfrey's rectum, the rationale for restraining the sedated wolf becomes clear. His legs kick violently when Asa flips the switch.

But his penis spews only a few drops of semen. So Asa tries again, and again, increasing the current each time. Godfrey's penis grows longer, thicker, purpler. At 150 milliamps, she coaxes a healthy squirt.

"Your birthday ejaculation!" Callahan exclaims. "How exciting!"

"That sample looks cloudy," Asa notes. She passes the sample to Bauman, who places it under the microscope.

"I like cloudy," Bauman says.

"How about creamy?" Asa says, breaking into routine.

"Creamy's even better," Bauman says. From the freezer she takes several vials containing what she calls "sperm extender," a homemade brew that increases the volume of a sample and neutralizes any urine that may have snuck in. She should have removed them earlier; now they're too cold.

One of the scientists suggests putting them down her shirt.

"Is that really your warmest place?" Thomassen inquires.

"No," says Bauman, "but it's the only place I'm putting it."

The group howls.

Now Thomassen demonstrates the delicate art of his intrauterine technique, easing a foot-long catheter inside Cecily, the tranquilized female. After he successfully threads the catheter past the wolf's cervix, he removes it in order to guide Bauman through the process.

Having deposed a syringeful of semen, Bauman takes several of the scientists' jackets and props them under Cecily's rump. "She's gotta lay there with her butt up in the air for a while so the sperm doesn't get away," she explains -- a scenario familiar to human couples who have to make a special effort to become pregnant.

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