End Pitt’s bladder burning experiments on cats

CAARE has uncovered deeply disturbing, horrific experiments on cats at the University of Pittsburgh.Pitt researchers are burning the sensitive lining of cats’ bladders by filling them with acetic acid, and then shocking cats’ nerves through electrodes to analyze brain control of bladder activity.

This extreme cruelty must be stopped and replcaed with far superior and modern animal-free research.

Help us stop these egregious experiments on defenseless cats by sending your letter today.

CAARE has uncovered deeply disturbing, horrific experiments on cats at the University of Pittsburgh.Pitt researchers are burning the sensitive lining of cats’ bladders by filling them with acetic acid, and then shocking cats’ nerves through electrodes to analyze brain control of bladder activity.

This extreme cruelty must be stopped and replcaed with far superior and modern animal-free research.

Help us stop these egregious experiments on defenseless cats by sending your letter today.

End Pitt’s cruel bladder experiments on cats

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I was horrified to learn about painful and invasive bladder experiments on cats taking place at the University of Pittsburgh.

To study bladder disorders, overactive bladder (OAB) and interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS), Pitt researchers are burning the sensitive lining of cats’ bladders by filling them with acetic acid, and then shocking cats’ nerves through electrodes to analyze brain control of bladder activity.

Pitt’s grant application to NIH requests at least 90 cats to be purchased and used for these sickening experiments.  All cats are killed so they can “harvest” segments of their spines for additional testing.

I strongly object to the use of highly sensitive cats in these cruel and lethal experiments that follow years of similar experiments at Pitt using rats and mice, which have failed to produce any human cures for bladder disorders.

There is no scientific basis to assume cat experiments will succeed where similar experiments on rats and mice have failed. Indeed, animal experiments have an overwhelming 90% failure rate for translating to human medicine.

What is more, the Pitt cat experiments are fundamentally flawed by combining research of overactive bladder and interstitial cystitis together. OAB and IC are distinctly different conditions, which by themselves have multiple different subtypes requiring independent research. Important new research indicates that on the cellular level, there may be different nerve signaling patterns for these two conditions and that the neurobiology of each is vastly different.

Even more importantly, new research presented at the American Urological Association in 2024 found that 34% of IC patients had neuropathy that was unrelated to bladder disease, therefore IC is no longer considered a bladder disorder. [Female Pelvic Med Reconstr Surg. 2021 Sep 1;27(9):581-585. PMID: 33109931]. This underscores how experiments that damage cats’ bladders to find underlying causes of IC are exceedingly off-target.

Innovative scientists are focusing on ethical, human-based research to deliver vital results that cannot come from inapplicable animal experiments.  Human cellular models, genomic analyses, 3D bioprinted models and biomodelling can yield human relevant results to advance new treatments.

These cruel and flawed experiments on cats must end and be replaced with human-relevant research to advance progress for bladder disorders.

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