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James Cromwell
The actor and a PETA activist burst into a University of Wisconsin Board of Regents meeting to accuse the school of carrying out cruel experiments on felines.
Oscar nominee James Cromwell was arrested Thursday while
protesting experimentation on cats at the University of Wisconsin.
Cromwell, who played the loveable farmer Hoggett in Babe, burst into a University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents meeting holding up large poster of a cat, which appeared to have a metal clamp implanted in its head, and shouting.
PETA uploaded video of the incident to YouTube and claims the university's experiments on cats aimed at helping the deaf are cruel and have not been successful.
“As many as 30 cats a year at UW have had holes drilled in their skulls" Cromwell says in the video. “They are deafened, starved for days at a time and then decapitated. This is not science. This is torture. And it is criminal.”
The video shows Cromwell being subdued soon after.
A rep for the actor confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter he was taken into custody by police and has since been released. Cromwell was joined in the protest by PETA spokesmanJeremy Beckham, according to TMZ, which reports that Cromwell was escorted out of the room in handcuffs.
Following the protest, the director of the UW–Madison Research Animal Resources Center, released the following statement:
"Today's events are just another attempt by outside activists to draw attention to a cause. They have attacked and distorted this research -- which has very real benefits for people who are deaf -- from every angle imaginable."
Sandgren added that "exhaustive independent investigation by the USDA, which regulates the use of animals in research, concluded that PETA's allegations are baseless."
Cromwell earned a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for Babe and recently played Dr. Arthur Arden in FX’s American Horror Story: Asylum.
Watch the video below.
