Update: Good news! We love James Cromwell even more than we already did because of hiswillingness to face arrest to help bring attention to cruel brain experiments on cats at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and now we love that local prosecutors have declined to bring criminal disorderly conduct charges against him—as well as against the PETA staff member who was arrested with him—for pointing out that the experiments are unethical and must be stopped. The pair have instead been cited for noncriminal county ordinance violations—similar to a traffic ticket.
The USDA’s documentation confirms that pain was inflicted on cats—including Double Trouble—who suffered from chronic life-threatening infections after having holes drilled into their skulls and metal coils implanted in their eyes and being constantly starved to force them to obey commands. Please join James Cromwell today in urging the
Day: March 26, 2013
Please Help! Ask the University of Wisconsin to STOP Torturing & Starving Cats!
UW-MADISON’S HISTORY OF ABUSING CATS
Unfortunately, UW-Madison‘s abusive treatment of Double Trouble was not an anomaly. Nearly every cat who has been subjected to this experiment has suffered from chronic infections as a result of the traumatic head and eye wounds that experimenters inflict upon them. To make matters worse, the cats imprisoned in this laboratory are coerced to cooperate in experiments by starving them of food for up to six days at a time. A U.S. Department of Agriculture report prompted by a PETA complaint found that there was a “pattern of recurring infections” at this laboratory and that some cats had such serious health complications that they had to be euthanized. One cat, NJ, had to have her eye cut out because of an incurable infection caused by the metal coil implanted in her eye.
Here are the disturbing stories of cats who were tormented in this experiment during the same time period as Double Trouble, some of whom have been imprisoned there fore more than a decade: continue reading…
PHOTO SOURCE: PETA
How you can help:
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.
Please send polite comments to (copy and paste entire block of email addresses into the SEND field on your email):
Feel free to use our sample letter, but remember that using your own words is always more effective.
Subject: Stop Cruel Experiments on Cats at UW-Madison!
Letter: 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. SOURCE
“If you want to be labeled a terrorist these days, all you have to do is show enough concern for animals that you are willing to be a watchdog.” ~ Robert Grillo, Free From Harm
Anxieties Rising in Meat Industry as Animal Activism’s Perceived Threat Looms Large
By Robert Grillo | March 25, 2013 |Free From Harm
The 2013 annual stakeholder’s meeting for the Animal Agriculture Alliance in May is entitled “Activists at the Door: Protecting Animals, Farms, Food & Consumer Confidence.” The expansive animal rights section of the AAA website features a subsection entitled “Agriculture is Outnumbered, Outfunded by Animal Activists.” It’s becoming increasingly clear that the perceived threat of activism to the agricultural industry and its key lobby group, AAA, is factoring heavily into their concerns.
The opening statement to the animal rights section of the AAA website sets the distorted tone with the following absurd misrepresentation of animal activism: “Radical activist organizations are leading the fight to grant animals the same legal rights as humans.” To suggest that the animal movement seeks to grant animals human rights to vote, to gay marriage, to abortion and to equal housing opportunities is no accident. It is a deliberate, underhanded smear tactic that shady politicians use to turn public sentiment against their opponents. The AAA sees their nemesis as a force to be defeated.
Keep reading. It gets even more interesting. Below this statement is a flowchart (AAA calls their “Activist Map”), displaying all of the major animal activism groups and how they …
PLEASE HELP THE WOLVES. EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT AN ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS, YOU MUST HAVE SOME SEMBLANCE OF COMPASSION FOR THESE BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS WHO DESERVE TO C0-EXIST WITH US.
The BORGare coming for wolves. The Hive Collective is mobilizing its wolf hating troops to pressure the USFWS to delist wolves across the US. The take-over of America’s wolves is being led by the usual suspects: Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT), Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Sen. John Barasso (R-WY). A letter sent to Dan Ashe, USFWS Director, on March 22, 2013, implored him to remove wolves from the Endangered Species List ACROSS THE LOWER 48. 72 members of Congress signed off on it, mainly House Republicans with a smattering of Senate Republicans and a few Democrats thrown in.
Wolves reside in just nine states: Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and sometimes California (with OR7 drifting in and out) and have been harassed, tortured, brutalized and hunted in the last four years, since the Spring of 2009 when our newly elected President Obama and his rancher Interior…
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Girl for Animal Liberation 
