October 16, 2017

It's time to end highly-invasive brain experiments that have maimed and killed hundreds of cats and kittens for more than thirty years.

At the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry, a team of scientists has been maiming and killing cats since 2002, conducting brain experiments to study the science of vision. These deplorable experiments continue what was started over thirty years ago in 1985, funded by a federal grant from the National Eye Institute (NEI).

Please send a letter to the director of the NEI and to officials at the SUNY College of Optometry to end funding for these abominable experiments without delay.

These arcane and useless experiments are killing and maiming helpless cats merely to create esoteric maps of neurons involved in visual processing.

Trusting and loving cats, some as young as 4 months old, are purchased from suppliers and brought into labs at the SUNY College of Optometry. There they are cut up and tortured in lengthy procedures that go on for hours. 

Anesthetized and paralyzed, their heads are mounted in frames to keep their eyes focused on flashing images while their skulls are removed and their brains are cruelly probed with electrodes.

This horrific, dead-end research has consumed $7.95 million taxpayer dollars and has not resulted in any treatments for vision disorders. Over $800,000 was spent in 2017 alone.

The researchers themselves admit that after 30 years, they still only have “a limited understanding of the precise arrangement” of visual neurons in the cat.  If it were up to them, these experiments would go on forever.

We can’t let that happen.

It’s time pull the plug on these terrible experiments that have inflicted immeasurable suffering on hundreds of cats and kittens. Send your letter today to end this dark chapter once and for all.

Update:

On June 21, 2018, CAARE filed a lawsuit against SUNY College of Optometry for refusing to comply with NY Freedom of Information Law and disclose records concerning the welfare of animals in these experiments. The lawsuit was filed with the assistance of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and the public interest firm of Meyer Glizenstein & Eubanks.

Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research (CAARE), is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, established to highlight and promote research without animals.

Please donate to support CAARE’s mission to end animal suffering by disseminating information about the power and progress of research without animals.