Animal activist Michelle Doers was reading Animal Times when she first learned about actor James Cromwell's arrest at the University of Wisconsin (UW) for protesting its heinous experiments on cats. That's when she remembered reading about something else in the PETA publication: a woman who wrapped her car in an ad to raise awareness about animal issues. So Michelle decided to turn her own car into a moving billboard for animals.

For the next two months, Michelle will be using her car to speak up for animals in laboratories and encouraging others to buy only cruelty-free home and beauty products. After that, she plans to change the wrap on her car seasonally. Her next message will encourage people to boycott Ringling Bros. for its abuse of elephants.

Another stellar activist and PETA supporter, Anne Feingold, helped coordinate a joint letter through her cat rescue organization that was signed by more than 150 cat advocacy and rescue organizations from nearly all 50 states. The letter, which unequivocally condemns UW's cruel experiments on cats, was sent to the leadership of the university as well as to the federal funding agency that enables this abuse. Anne also showed impressive initiative and dedication by contacting local media in Madison, Wisconsin, to alert them to her efforts.

Are you inspired by Michelle and Anne? Want to help animals from your computer and in your community? Join our Action Team! And if you're an activist younger than 21, check out peta2's Street Team! 

Update: Good news! We love James Cromwell even more than we already did because of his willingness to face arrest to help bring attention to cruel brain experiments on cats at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and now we love that local prosecutors have declined to bring criminal disorderly conduct charges against him—as well as against the PETA staff member who was arrested with him—for pointing out that the experiments are unethical and must be stopped. The pair have instead been cited for noncriminal county ordinance violations—similar to a traffic ticket.

The USDA's documentation confirms that pain was inflicted on cats—including Double Trouble—who suffered from chronic life-threatening infections after having holes drilled into their skulls and metal coils implanted in their eyes and being constantly starved to force them to obey commands. Please join James Cromwell today in urging the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents to stop these cruel and deadly experiments.

The following was originally posted on February 7, 2013:

Members of the University of Wisconsin (UW) System Board of Regents sat stunned as actor James Cromwell entered their meeting to challenge them over experiments on cats. Likely the last thing the board expected today was to have an Academy Award nominee rush in, holding a grisly picture of a cat with a large metal post protruding from her head, and exclaim, "This is not science! This is torture! Shame on you!" But James, a longtime PETA supporter, felt that it was high time the board got personally called out for UW-Madison's abuse of cats. Campus police arrested him and a PETA staff member but not before the board had to stare into the face of just one of the many cats who had been tormented and killed in UW-Madison's disturbing brain and ear experiments. 

The orange tabby cat whose image has become synonymous with the cruel cat laboratories is Double Trouble. Experimenters screwed a steel post to her skull so that they could immobilize her head and planted electrical devices deep inside her ears. They allowed her massive, bloody head wound to become severely infected, and they then starved her for days at a time so that she would cooperate with them in exchange for a morsel of food to eat. Finally, calling the experiment a failure, they killed and decapitated her.

PETA has repeatedly asked UW-Madison to end its abusive experiments on cats but has received no response. Please e-mail UW's Board of Regents and urge the members to listen to James and the hundreds of thousands of other compassionate people who want the school to end these cruel cat laboratories and switch to modern, superior, non-animal research methods.

Following a complaint filed by PETA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed PETA's allegations of rampant abuse of cats in a taxpayer-funded brain experiment at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW), where actor James Cromwell was arrested during a protest last month. The USDA also cited UW for violating federal animal protection laws by burning a cat named Broc so badly with a heating pad that she required surgery.

In a scathing report just obtained by PETA, a federal inspector found "a pattern of recurring infections" and that all the cats whom PETA profiled in its complaint had been "diagnosed with chronic infections" after having steel posts screwed into open wounds on their heads and metal coils implanted into their eyes.

The USDA noted that some cats, including Slinky, have died because of these infections and that one cat named NJ even had to have her eye removed after the metal coil became the site of frequent serious infections.

The government report includes never-before-seen heartbreaking photographs of NJ, Broc, and the five other mutilated cats who are still alive in the laboratory. We now know the faces of the other victims of this laboratory besides Double Trouble.

All these new revelations confirm what PETA has been saying for months: UW tortures animals and doesn't mind twisting the truth about it. Even though it knew it wasn't true, in interviews and statements UW has shamelessly claimed that the government had not substantiated any of PETA's allegations and that it wasn't cited for its abuse of cats. In fact, during the same period it was claiming it had been cleared, UW was trying in vain to appeal the government's citation.

What You Can Do

The cats in UW's labs are suffering miserably, and they don't have time for more evasions and excuses—now exposed as deceptive spin. Please urge the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents to put an immediate halt to these cruel experiments.

With the approach of holiday travel, drivers nationwide are anticipating pain at the pump—but it will sting a bit more for some motorists in Madison, Wisconsin, where  gas stations in high-traffic areas are now displaying PETA ads with a shocking photo taken inside a University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) laboratory in which dozens of cats were abused and killed as part of a continuing taxpayer-funded experiment.

Truth Will Out

The ads show a gentle tabby named Double Trouble restrained in a bag with a steel post screwed into her skull. It's just one of the photos that PETA obtained following a three-year legal battle against UW. They were taken by the experimenters as part of an appalling project in which cats also have steel coils implanted in their eyes and electrodes inserted into their brains, are starved for days at a time, and are intentionally deafened.

Following complaints by PETA and a former UW veterinarian, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are investigating apparent violations of federal animal welfare regulations and misuse of federal funding related to these horrible experiments. After UW officials fought for years to keep the photographic evidence of Double Trouble's wretched life and protracted death secret, PETA's ads are showing their friends and neighbors exactly how cats are tormented and killed behind the school's laboratory doors.

What You Can Do

Learn more about UW's shameful secrets, and please urge the federal government to stop funding this primitive and lethal experiment.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) should be cited for violating the Animal Welfare Act. That's the verdict of the veterinarian who oversaw the treatment of Double Trouble and other cats who were subjected to cruel brain experiments at UW. Attending veterinarian Dr. Richard "Jim" Brown agrees with PETA's allegations that laboratory staff failed to give cats proper anesthesia during surgery, failed to effectively address cats' chronic head wound infections, and allowed other serious health problems to go untreated—all of which, Brown wrote, "expos[ed] the animals to unnecessary pain." He explains how the intentional starving of the cats by experimenters in order to force them to cooperate caused severe weight loss and may have compromised their immune systems so that they couldn't stave off infection.

Vet to USDA: Reopen the Case

Now, Dr. Brown has written to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) expressing his disappointment that the agency did not cite UW after PETA filed an extensive complaint based on internal UW documents. He is also urging the agency to reopen its investigation.

'I Quit!'

You may recall that Brown resigned in 2010 after his concerns about the welfare of the animals were not properly addressed by UW faculty and staff. But even though he is no longer employed by the university, he is still speaking up for animals used in UW's laboratories and demanding justice for the cats who were victims of the school's alleged negligence and abuse.

What You Can Do

While PETA and Dr. Brown work to hold UW accountable, you can help ensure that no more cats suffer like Double Trouble did by asking the National Institutes of Health to cut its funding for UW's cruel brain experiments.