Oscar nominee James Cromwell was arrested Thursday for disrupting a meeting and protesting against animal abuse at the University of Wisconsin (UW).
Seventy-three-year-old Cromwell, along with a PETA activist, barged into the meeting holding placards that carried a photo of "Double Trouble" cat, which was killed last year during "sound localization" experiment at UW-Madison.
"This is not science," Cromwell said. This is cruel! Shame on UW for mutilating and killing cats!"
Both men were arrested by the campus police and transported to a local jail with charges of disorderly conduct, reported TODAY.com. They were released Thursday afternoon.
"The UW may think that grant money matters more than animals' suffering, but the public who unwillingly funds this cruelty demands an end to these hideous experiments," The "Babe" and "American Horror Story" actor said before his arrest, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
According to PETA, UW-Madison experimented on 30 cats in a year during which the cats were starved, deafened and decapitated for brain research that did not achieve its goal; but was rather important for them so that they can "keep up a productive publication record that ensures constant funding."
"Our purpose to protest at the meeting was to bring attention to what is happening in that laboratory which is cruel and unnecessary,"Cromwell told NBC15 after his arrest, "A letter was sent by PETA to the regents but they did not respond and the next thing to do was try to bring little pressure on the regents to take a look at it and see if they want to continue at this cost because it is a black mark on their research."
"Today's events are just another attempt by outside activists to draw attention to a cause,"said the director of the UW-Madison Research Animal Resources Center in a released statement, "They have attacked and distorted this research - which has very real benefits for people who are deaf - from every angle imaginable," adding, "Exhaustive independent investigation by the USDA, which regulates the use of animals in research, concluded that PETA's allegations are baseless."
