Stand-up comedian and television host Bill Maher called more than 100,000 Madison-area numbers Tuesday to warn University of Wisconsin-Madison students, faculty and the Madison community about animal cruelty in campus research labs, according to a press release from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Maher, who is scheduled to speak at the Overture Center for the Arts Oct. 13, pre-recorded a voice message in which he says cats have had holes drilled in their skull and metal coils implanted in their eyes, and researchers have cut off cats’ ears and starved them.
“Many things in life are funny, but cruelty to animals isn’t one of them,” Maher said in the message. “I want to make sure you know about the terrible things done to cats right here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.”
But the university said in a statement Tuesday the claims have no factual basis and said PETA’s repeated animal cruelty claims are “unsubstantiated” and “false.”
“The facts tell us that the research in question is important, was conducted appropriately and humanely, and will lead to a better understanding of hearing and technologies to address hearing loss,” the university said in the statement.
PETA initially made animal cruelty allegations against the university in September 2012, which led to investigations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health, both of which found no major violations.
A six-month investigation by the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare into a UW-Madison experiment found no violations in the university’s use of cats in sound localization, but the organization recommended the university do more to control infection in lab environments and improve cleaning methods in surgical areas.
