Came across this tidbit: apparently Edison electrocuted an elephant to death in the US to try and settle a scientifitc argument.

Addendum: according to wikipedia, he actually had many animals electrocuted during the “war of currents” against his arch nemesis, Tesla. He was well known to scam patents from his employees (typical of big business and now universities too) and one of those was in building the Sizzlin’ Sally.