Graphic Photo of Cat Killed by UW Emblazons 130 Metro Buses

PETA Blasts Cat Laboratory Cruelty in Madison Ad Blitz

For Immediate Release:
December 3, 2013

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

If you see a Madison Metro bus today, you might want to prepare for a shock.

PETA has placed graphic ads on more than 130 buses – including ads on the interior, tail, and sides of buses – as part of its efforts to expose and end the mutilation and killing of cats in cruel brain experiments at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW).

The ads read, “I Am Not Lab Equipment! End UW Cat Experiments,” and feature a graphic photograph taken by UW staff of a cat named Double Trouble.

Like all the cats used in this experiment, Double Trouble had a steel post screwed to her head and metal coils implanted in her eyes. She was also intentionally deafened, starved, and eventually killed and decapitated. PETA obtained the shocking photograph following a three-year legal battle during which UW tried to keep secret the disturbing photo and others like it.

“The photographs of a nightmarish experiment on cats that UW fought tooth and nail to keep secret are now splashed larger than life on the city’s buses,” says PETA Director of Laboratory Investigations Justin Goodman. “UW hoped images of these barbaric experiments would never see the light of day because they can’t be defended—they’re extremely cruel, they don’t help people and they must end now.”

Hundreds of thousands of people have contacted UW as well as the federal agency that funds these experiments to speak out against them. Earlier this year, American Horror Story star James Cromwell was arrested after he interrupted a Board of Regents meeting to protest the experiments, and in October, Real Time star Bill Maher recorded a voice message urging the community—including UW students and faculty, members of the Board of Regents, and Madison residents living near the UW campus—to join PETA’s campaign.

For more information, please visit PETA.org/UWCATS. Madison’s NBC 15 has a photograph of PETA’s full wrap ad, which can be viewed here.