I was shocked to learn about highly invasive brain research on cats at the State University of New York, College of Optometry. These experiments have been going on since 1985, funded by the National Eye Institute.

For more than three decades, hundreds of cats and kittens have been maimed and killed for arcane and unproductive research to create a map of the cat visual cortex. After more than thirty years of this research, the principal investigator claims that they still only have “a limited understanding of the precise arrangement” of visual neurons.

Experimenting on cats forever in pursuit of the ultimate brain map of the feline visual cortex is cruel and unjustified. The response of a single neuron in an anesthetized cat is a limited view of the full picture of human vision. Vision is a conscious phenomenon. Tracking the way a neuron fires in an anesthetized cat is an archaic way of studying visual processing in the human brain.

With the outstanding progress made in human brain mapping over the last twenty years, it is unconscionable to sustain research that is mired in outdated animal methods

The grant that funds these terrible experiments (2R01EY005253-31) is due to end in June of 2018. As a member of the tax-paying public, I respectfully request that these archaic, fruitless, and painful experiments finally be terminated.