Blog Leader: “Cat Research, after all the drama” and “USDA finds animal treatment violation”

I have always associated PETA with animal rights, but with things like being against the use of real fur. I was not aware that as mentioned in both articles that they accused labs of being in violation of animal treatment. I went on PETAs website and sure enough their slogan is “Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way”. So with that background knowledge on PETA the article made a little more sense to me. That is enough about PETA because the clear focus of both articles is the cats are being used in the cochlear implant experiment.

The UW-Madison lab was cited when a cat was burned due to an unfortunate incident with a heating pad. The USDA investigated and after the citation, they decided that things could carry on. This article was written in 2013, and I wonder if there have been any other incidents involving the same experiment.

From reading the article, it appears that PETA’s claims may have been extreme. But I found it interesting that there was so much mention of PETA yet, the USDA would have given UW-Madison the citation with or without PETA’s claims.

I am very against animal testing and especially on cats. Despite the arguments made in favor of using cats for the testing of cochlear implants, I agree with PETA that UW-Madison should find different ways to test them. Even if the cochlear implants do not harm the cat, and better the lives of humans, I think the cats deserve to just be someone’s pet, not a test subject, and certainty not the victim of a heating pad burn. What do you think? Do you agree with PETA or do you think the testing at UW-Madison should continue? 

I am happy to report that since these articles were published, the lab has closed. I posted the link below for more information on that if you are interested. Just click the word link. 
Link