I write regarding coverage of the efforts of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to demonize research at UW-Madison, using disconcerting images of a cat given a cochlear implant. Contrary to PETA’s claim, the experiments are important and relevant. In many fields, including auditory science, research on animals provides an essential scaffold on which we build knowledge that can then be translated into clinical applications. With cochlear implants, animal research is required prior to attempting any new invasive approaches in humans.