For decades, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) has allowed experimenters to conduct cruel taxpayer-funded "sound localization" experiments on cats like Double Trouble, a gentle orange tabby. In these experiments, cats have steel coils implanted in their eyes, holes drilled into their skulls, and electrodes implanted in their brains. Sometimes, they even have their ears cut off or are intentionally deafened by having a toxic chemical applied to their inner ear. They are then deprived of food for several days in order to coerce them to look in the direction of sounds during experimental sessions in which their heads are immobilized by a bolt screwed to their skulls.
More than 200,000 people have already contacted the federal government to ask that funding for these experiments be halted.
But UW also shares responsibility for approving and allowing this horrific abuse. Please use the form below to contact the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents. Urge the board members to use their authority to halt these cruel experiments immediately.
Experimenters have justified the use of 30 cats like Double Trouble per year in this cruel project not by saying that it would enhance human health but by stating that they needed to "keep up a productive publication record that ensures our constant funding."
Shockingly, the federal government continues to support this irrelevant and deadly project and has provided UW with more than $3 million in grant money to abuse animals—even though researchers at other institutions around the world are already using modern methods with human volunteers to investigate how the brain locates and processes sound.
I was dismayed to learn that the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) is still tormenting cats in cruel and useless "sound localization" experiments. Cats used in these experiments have steel coils implanted in their eyes, holes drilled into their skulls, and electrodes implanted in their brains. Sometimes, they even have their ears cut off or are intentionally deafened by having a toxic chemical applied to their inner ear. They are then deprived of food for several days in order to coerce them to look in the direction of sounds during experimental sessions in which their heads are immobilized by a bolt screwed to their skulls.
Nearly every cat who has been subjected to this experiment has suffered from chronic bacterial infections as a result of the traumatic head and eye wounds inflicted on them. Because experimenters chronically starve these cats for days at a time, their immune systems are weakened. A former UW veterinarian who worked in this laboratory has stated that this makes their infections even more severe and even more difficult for the cats to stave off.
Internal UW documents and photographs obtained by PETA show that one cat subjected to this experiment, an orange tabby cat named Double Trouble, woke up while experimenters were cutting into her head. Like other cats used in these experiments, Double Trouble developed debilitating infections and became lethargic and depressed. She started to twitch and suffered paralysis in half her face. After UW faculty deemed the experiment a failure, Double Trouble was killed and decapitated so that her brain could be examined.
The experiment with Double Trouble has never been published, and similar studies on other cats are rarely cited and have never been identified as contributing to advancements in improving human hearing. Yet these cruel and sloppy experiments persist at UW. As someone who has authority over the activities of all UW campuses and an obligation to ensure that only worthwhile and ethical research projects are pursued, you are in a position to end this cruel project. I urge you to intervene and stop these experiments immediately.
