According to definition research is “the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions.”  With this intent animals are used in experimental research and most often than not the methods used are cruel and with little regard to the pain inflicted.  The major scientific fields which resort to animal research are cosmetic, medical and biological.  Much of the following information comes from PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Sadly, man who was made the caretaker of animals at the creation, has instead turned around and exploited them instead.  Cruelty has often been the reward for their defenselessness.  No animal species has been immune to this inhumanity.  Over the past several years, the number of cats used in research has fluctuated between 19,000 and 25,000.

Cats are frequently used in neurology research to study spinal cord injury, as well as problems related to vision, sleep, and hearing, and continued to be used because so much is known about their neurological functions. This type of research is extremely invasive, and almost always results in the euthanasia of the cats after they are subjected to grueling vivisection procedures.

The primary reason cats are used in research has much to do with logistical and practical reasons. They are easy to handle, house, and subject to experimental manipulations,

More than 19,000 cats are abused in U.S. laboratories every year—in addition to the tens of thousands who are killed and sold to schools for cruel and crude classroom dissections. These cats are just as deserving of fulfilling lives and loving homes as the feline companions who purr on our laps.

Indeed, thousands of the cats who end up in laboratories or in classrooms are homeless animals who were betrayed by animal shelters.

 

A PETA  investigator who worked undercover inside the laboratories of  the University of Utah discovered that a then-mandatory “pound-seizure” law had compelled local animal shelters to hand over hundreds of homeless dogs and cats to the university for use in invasive, painful, and often deadly experiments. One pregnant cat who had been purchased from a local animal shelter for $15 gave birth to eight kittens the very day that she arrived at the university. A chemical was injected into the kittens’ brains, and all the kittens died. In another experiment, a cat named Robert, who had also been bought from a local shelter, had a hole drilled into his skull and electrodes attached to his brain. Following PETA’s vigorous campaign, the university announced that it would no longer obtain animals from shelters, effectively ending pound seizure in the state of Utah.

A PETA investigation into cruel “sound localization” experiments at the University of Wisconsin–Madison revealed that experimenters drill holes into cats’ skulls, implant electrodes in their brains, and implant steel coils in their eyes. The cats are intentionally deafened and then killed. At Michigan State University, experimenters cut into cats’ faces, crushed their optic nerves, removed their eyes, and then killed them. In auditory studies, cats have their ears cut off and are locked in restraint chairs so that their brain activity can be measured in response to different sounds. In stroke experiments, blood flow to the cats’ brains or eyes is blocked, causing a stroke. In vision experiments, cats are raised in darkness, have one or both eyes sewn shut, or have their eyes removed.

At a contract testing laboratory called Professional Laboratory and Research Services (PLRS), where PETA conducted an undercover investigation, cats suffered seizures and bled from the nose and mouth after an experimental chemical was applied to their skin. In spite of this severe reaction, the chemical was administered to the cats a second time the very same day. PLRS was shut down after PETA filed a complaint with federal authorities.

 

The National Institutes of Health acknowledges that 95 percent of all new drugs that test safe and effective in animal tests fail or cause harm in human clinical trials. NIH also acknowledges that 90 percent of basic research, most of which involves animals, fails to lead to any human therapies.  In other words, animal experimentation is a colossal failure.

The USDA reports that 19,000 cats are used each year in experimentation – in addition to the tens of thousands who are killed and sold to schools for crude classroom dissections. Often, these cats endure the most heinous procedures imaginable.

It is hard to believe that cats, or indeed any animals, are still being subjected to barbaric practices and unimaginable pain and suffering in today’s animal testing laboratories, but they are.  THEY ARE!