Despite public outcry against the kitten experiments, online poll results show 40% of respondents think there’s nothing wrong with that. The poll remains open; we include the link to vote for those who’d like to impact the results.
We posted on controversial research experiments with kittens on Monday, in Cardiff Research Experiments Raise Kittens in Darkness, Sew Eyelids Shut.
Anti-animal testing advocacy group BUAV, which discovered the research in the European Journal of Neuroscience, discussed the Cardiff University kitten experiments at their website, stating, “The BUAV has uncovered research at Cardiff University in which newborn litters of kittens were raised in total darkness and others were deprived of sight in one eye by having their eyelids sewn shut.
“In the experiment at Cardiff University, 31 cats were used. Most of the kittens, other than the control group, were raised in complete darkness from birth for periods of up to 12 weeks. Others were deprived of the sight in one eye from one-month old for up to a week, by having their eyelids sewn shut.
“The kittens were then anaesthetised, and their skulls cut open to expose their brains. Images were recorded of the responses of the cats’ brains (visual cortex) to visual stimuli, after which the cats were killed and parts of their brains removed for further analysis. The experiment was publicly funded through the Medical Research Council.”
After publication of a story in Wales Online brought the kitten experiments to the public’s attention on Sunday, high-profile comedian and BUAV supporter Ricky Gervais spoke out, saying, “I am appalled that kittens are being deprived of sight by having their eyelids sewn shut. I thought sickening experiments like these were a thing of the past.”
A piece in today’s Mirror Online gives results of a reader poll of over 10,000 people, asking whether the kitten experiments were acceptable or not. At the time of publication, polling results showed that 46% of respondents said he experiments were acceptable and 54% said they were not. At this writing, the votes stand at 40% in favor of the experiments to 60% against.
The poll is still open. If you’d like to add your vote and influence the results, click HERE for today’s Mirror story and place your vote at the bottom of the story (before the comments).
If you’d like to further influence the vote between now and the time it closes (which is undisclosed), you can share this post or the Mirror story.
These things are so disgusting I have no words for the way it makes me feel however, I can see absolutely no relevant information coming out of this except that it messes up any living creature to force it to live without light. I only wish these men of science would get some light delivered to their cold empty souls.
This is the most disgusting thing I have heard in a while. I’d like to sew the scientists eyes together.
This has to be stopped!
i just dont understand this. how is this supposed to help humans? it doesnt. it just finds out what happens in a cats head. duh…
In this time 2012, is really unnecessary to do experiments of any kind in animals. And the reason is that animals and humans do not have the same anatomy, science is far advanced and technology with modern implements does not require animals to be tested on. So let’s put the END to unnecessary cruelty and exploitation against animals!
This is disgusting! If they argue there is a point to this experiemnt-what is the point? I can’t believe this experimenting on animals still exists!
Maybe the people that think this experiment is ok should volunteer themselves or their loved ones for this. Besides being pointless it is just out and out cruelty.
I suppose the 40% of people in favor of this experiment were in a jail for the criminally insane!!!!!