PETA Brings Gruesome Photos of UW-Madison Animal Abuse to Campus

Students Will See Firsthand How UW–Madison Experimenters Cut Into, Deafened, Decapitated Cats in Useless Study

For Immediate Release:
September 17, 2012

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382 

Madison, Wis. -- Less than a week after PETA released documents and disturbing never-before-seen photos detailing abusive experiments on an orange tabby cat named Double Trouble at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW), PETA members will display oversized posters emblazoned with the gruesome photographs that the university never wanted the public to see on UW's Madison campus. PETA will be joined by students collecting signatures for a petition that calls for an end to these cruel and useless experiments, in which Double Trouble—like other cats used in UW's sound localization studies—had holes drilled into her head, a steel post screwed to her skull, electrodes implanted in her brain, and coils implanted in her eyes. After UW staff deemed their experiment a failure, Double Trouble was killed and decapitated.

When:   Tuesday, September 18, 12 noon

Where:  Library Mall at the UW–Madison campus, near the intersection of State and N. Lake streets, Madison

Experimenters justified using up to 30 cats per year in this experiment so that they could "keep up a productive publication record that ensures our constant funding." Researchers at other universities use human volunteers to study how the brain processes sound.

"PETA believes UW students have a right to know what happens behind the closed doors of their school's laboratories, where cats are being mutilated, deafened, paralyzed, and decapitated," says PETA Senior Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "Anyone who cares about animals—or about good science—will call for an end to these cruel and pointless studies."

For more information, please visit PETA.org/DoubleTrouble.