Bill Maher has given the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) a wake-up call—literally. The host of HBO’s Real Time recorded a message on PETA’s behalf that was auto-dialed today to every member of UW’s staff, faculty, and student body as well as to UW’s Board of Regents and residents living near the school’s campus.

“On this very campus, dozens of live cats have holes drilled into their skulls, steel posts screwed to their heads, and metal coils implanted in their eyes,” Maher said. “Some cats have had their ears cut off. Others are intentionally deafened. … It strikes me that it’s not the cats who need their heads examined …. I’m calling on you to join me in helping to end this abuse.”

Prompted by a PETA complaint, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) report released just last week confirmed PETA’s allegations that UW failed to take adequate steps to avoid the cats’ infected, open head wounds and to treat them and that UW’s justification for the use of cats and the number of cats used was inadequate. NIH took the exceptionally rare step of ordering UW to suspend the experiments for nearly six months while major changes were implemented. The NIH findings echo a separate report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in February, also prompted by a PETA complaint, which found rampant infections among the cats used in these experiments. Some infections were so severe that they resulted in the removal of one cat’s eye and the euthanasia of several cats.

What You Can Do

Please join Bill Maher in urging UW to put an immediate, permanent halt to these cruel experiments.