BREAKING EXPOSÉ: USDA “Uses Kittens as Test Tubes”

Posted by Justin Goodman
07 May 2018 | Blog


UPDATE (4/2/19): Following a year-long White Coat Waste Project campaign, the USDA announced that its kitten slaughterhouse will close permanently and the 14 surviving cats will be adopted out. Read more.

Original post (05/07/18)

The kitten is out of the bag. A new White Coat Waste Project investigation has exposed that for nearly half a century taxpayers have been funding deadly kitten experiments at a secretive U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland. Now, we’re working with Congress to stop it.

Photo from inside USDA kitten lab obtained by WCW through a Freedom of Information Act request


As first reported by Washington, DC ABC affiliate WJLA and Christian Broadcasting Network, documents obtained by WCW through the Freedom of Information Act–including experimental protocols, animal purchase orders and photographs–show that a USDA Agricultural Research Service laboratory breeds 100 kittens a year, feeds the 2-month-old kittens Toxoplasma-infected raw meat, collects their feces for 2-3 weeks to harvest the parasite for use in other experiments, and then kills, bags and incinerates the kittens like they’re trash.

Photo from inside USDA kitten lab obtained by WCW through a Freedom of Information Act request


The USDA kills all of the kittens, even though it admits that virtually all of them are healthy after the experiments. Expert authorities–including the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–agree that Toxoplasma-exposed cats are safe and adoptable because after just one Toxoplasma exposure, cats shed the parasite, become immune and won’t transmit to humans or other animals.

This morning, Congressman Mike Bishop (R-MI)–who has been at the forefront of efforts to end taxpayer-funded animal experiments, including investigating government laboratories’ use of dogs and cats–sent a strongly-worded letter to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue criticizing the kitten tests and demanding answers.

These deadly, decades-old taxpayer-funded kitten experiments also continue despite criticism from veterinary experts who call the kitten model “difficult and expensive,” say it raises “ethical concerns” and are advocating for the development on in vitro models.

Tell Congress to pass the bipartisan KITTEN Act to defund these deadly taxpayer-funded experiments, and urge USDA to adopt out the cats!

Blog Comments

This is a totally unnecessary and cruel waste of life

Stop this unessasary cruelty to these cats! & your experiments this is horribly wrong and allow the cats to be treated and rehomed they are only kittens, not getting a chance at life stop this immediately its barbaric and heartless these kittens dont deserve this cycle in your experiments end it! Stop your damn experiments!!

We have laws against animal cruelty, why do these laws not brought down upon these people? Why do taxpayers have to pay for this? I love all animals and cats especially, what they are doing is horrible!

also. boycott animal research charities, see my facebook facts (& march of dimes quote) at, facebook.com/garyfair96 (always question tradition!), no lie can live forever!

Stop killing kitten’s

WHO DOES THIS???!!! Not YOU, not ME!!! Must be people who hate animals! The wasted money is disgusting, accomplishing WHAT? The unimaginable cruelty is beyond barbarism. Who are WE who let this continue???!!!

Stop using animals

Stop killing kittens for no reason they don’t deserve that

I agree I love cats i actually have one and the thought of her in one of those lab brings me to tears we accepted cats as pets not a tool to test on THIS SHOULD BE ILLEGAL!!!!!!

How dare you do this to kittens. They trust us to take care of them and love . You people are evil. Stop using them in experiments . they are not born for you to use them and then kill them.

Stop killing kittens that you use as experiments! Adopt them out to loving homes! Stop using live animals in your cruel experiments! I do not want my taxes to fund these barbaric experiments!

I thought this was fake until I researched it. Stop the killing, this is barbaric!

This is horrible, this kind of testing is not necessary and cruel!

Horrible .. stop using animals this way…and then disposing of them. Ask. we the people howcwe wants our taxes spent ….

Stop this with our taxpayers $$. Stop it period

none

Humans have become vile and soulless!!

Not cool. Not cool at all. If we can put 2 robots on mars….why are we still doing this to animals.

do you have respect for the kittens no you don’t what if it was you? you born into the world hoping to live your life?
but they you just get kill for nothing if you don’t have respect for the animals they you don’t have respect for your self SO STOP IT NOW!

How could this people do that :(( please bring justice back to the kittens.
They are so cruel

do you have respect for the kittens no you don’t what if it was you? you born into the world hoping to live your life?
but they you just get kill for nothing if you don’t have respect for the animals they you don’t have respect for your self SO STOP IT NOW!

This stinks, so of course, it is government run!

This cruel, inhuman practice must be stopped! This is no better than China’s Dog Meat Festivals! Everyone who sees this MUST notify their reps……

What, the actual, fuck, why would they kill hundreds of kittens for a FUCKING EXPERIMENT!!!
!!!

This is unnecessary. Why kill them if their adoptable? I do not want my tax dollars used for this horrible practice.

This is outrageous!!! What kind of people are you???!!! Please STOP this and STOP THIS NOW!!! Everyone, please spread the word and ask everyone to put pressure on the killers to STOP all these killings. My heart is just aching thinking about all the kittens in their lab not knowing what is about to happen to them. Those involved in the killings are all SICK!!!

why does this happen #savethekittens

I’m so angry right now that I’m seething…

This is atrocious and barbaric.

Atrocious and barbaric.

This is terrible they should kill usda poor kittens I but those greedy ****** will go to hell

Please stop killing kitten in expiriments. And instead just give them away because a living animal shouldn’t be treated like this and should have a better life out in the world with a family to take care of them. I beg of you please stop this And send a kitten to someone that can make them happy.

Stop killing cats I’m a cat lover

Stop this barbaric and extremely unnecessary killing of cats and kittens. I don’t want my tax dollars used for this cruel purpose. Adopt the cats out to loving homes. Stop the experiments! By now I’m sure you have all the research you need.

The usda should have never been so foolish. What if you were one of the cats in usda I have a good feeling that you would want to live, not to die. LET THE CUTE INNOCENT CATS LIVE PLEASE

Please stop this barbaric practice!!!

The story speaks volume about America the people in it, the value placed on Life and how heartless we have become.

Someone would have to have some nerve to kill something that has a beating heart that is perfectly healthy this is so horrible USDA you are monsters

USDA i hope you die in the flaming pits of hell

WHAT THE F U C K !? Dog eating festival in China is bad, but this is ok by USDA ? JUST…NO! EVIL F U C K I N G C O C K S U C K E R S!!!

Please stop killing innocent kittens it’s so cruel..
How would you like it if you where born just to be tested on and then be killed ???
How disgusting and hearting breaking this problem is…

I am saddened, after all these years of loving cats, this happens! The USDA has been breeding cats JUST TO KILL THEM!!!! These experiments are unnecessary, and they are just wrong. The USDA has been searching and looking at our fresh meats but now they forget the meats and they don’t care what kittens are.

What new level of HELL are you monsters wasting money on now????? This is by far the sickest, most inhumane venture I have ever heard of!!! STOP IMMEDIATELY!!!!

This is disgusting as if there was not enough animal cruelty in the world and you USDA are adding to it.Breeding cats,kittens just to do experiments on it is horrendous let these healthy cats and kittens be adopted,stop using tax payers money when it could be put to use saving animals not KILLING THEM.

Pointless killing of Kittens . How do you sleep or even live with yourselves .

This program has got to Stop! I’m an American tax payer and I love cats. This practice is disgusting and such a waste. I can’t imagine a human being actually being involved in anyway with this study, how you could kill a tiny living being but before that put it through all these useless tests. You should be ashamed of your actions and God help you.

I definitely agree with most of the previous comments (short of violence and cursing the perpetrators). I share and appreciate the outrage. Thanks to CBN and the other groups and congressmen for exposing this horror. Now, a bit of perspective: Do we have at least the same outrage over taxpayer funding of human abortion. See the previous comment about “every beating heart.”

This is just senseless. Makes my blood boil.

Please stop this inhumane cruelty to animals

Please stop this abuse on animals!

USDA You have to be deaf, dumb and blind to not know the public would be outraged by what you are doing. You must stop immediately and put those babies up for adoption. In case you don’t know, animal people are relentless. We can become quite annoying. We will expect your plan to cease and desist before the end of May, 2018.

Stop The Insanity!

People who have no heart and destroy living creatures, especially one’s that AFTER their usefulness is gone, and they are or could have a nice long life, kill them anyway, have no business being in this “Business”. And Taxpayers should not be flipping the bill to it! This needs to stop!!!

All abuse of any living creature is not permissible. Please, for God’s sake, STOP.

STOP THIS ABUSE ON ANIMALS

MAKE THEM STOP KILLING KITTENS USE HUMANS IS BETTER

Please be kind

Please stop this inhumane cruelty to animals

This is inhumane, senseless cruelty – please stop it immediately!!!

Unbelievable the things that my money pays for. I did not consent for my money to be used to cause the suffering of any animal. Stop this immediately!

Respect smallest as your own kids !
EVOLUTION is live & let live
without cruelty concsiously !Thank you for choosing the true Action!

WHY do they do this???? Where do these people come from??? Do they have a soul? How inhumane!

This cruel, inhumane and archaic behavior must stop!

I am totally disgusted to find out that we are spending taxpayer money in this fashion. This is cold blooded murder of innocent lives. This needs to stop now!

How could this be happening? Mad scientists being funded by the USA?? It’s unbelievable!!, stop the torture and shut down the facility.

Stop this horrific act NOW!! This is horribly wrong!!!

I think it is disgusting that human beings actually use other species for the sole purpose of making life easier for us!!!
With the ‘supposed’ new technology humans claim we have to lead us towards a lifespan twice what we had less than a century ago, I as 1 human being would prefer to die a natural death earlier than inflict certain death on hundreds of thousands of animals that HAVE NO CHOICE!!! how messed up are we as a species that we think we are better than any other form of life??
The more i think about animal abuse like this the more angry i feel, if i make a choice to donate organs or my life to save someone or something That is MY choice but to subject animals that HAVE NO SAY OR CHOICE to tests we consider to dangerous for our species to experiment with is (in my opinion) no less than a murder (by any other name)
it has been proven time and time again that so many animals have feelings and a sense of family etc that i honestly cannot fathom how our ‘scientists’ can test them and hurt them in the name of making life easier for us, and then to slaughter them when they decide they have served their use, adds insult to (injury) DEATH!!
it is past time to realise that without the multitude of different forms of life NOT ONE OF US WOULD EVEN EXIST!!!!!
Please just STOP IT!!!!!!!
For our sake. 😺🙉🦍🐶🐕🐺🦊🦁🐯🐎🦄🦓🦌🐮🐂🐃🐄🐷🐗🐏🐐🐪🦒🐘🦏🐭🐁🐹🐰🐇🐿🦔🦇🐻🐨🐼🐾🦃🐣🐤🐦🐧🦅🕊🦆🦉🐸🐊🐢🦎🐍🐲🐉🦕🦖🐳🐋🐬🐟🐠🐡🦈🐙🐚🦀🦐🦑🐌🦋🐛🐜🐝🐞🦗🕷🦂 📈📉⚠️⚠️⚠️🇮🇪
I hope these emojies actually share what I am truly feeling!!!!!

Don’t blame me. I vote the straight Libertarian Party ticket!

How about a refund to taxpayers for spending our money funding animal cruelty. Isn’t Animal Cruelty a Felony?
Those experiments are useless, if you are feeding toxoplasma infected meat is because you already had toxoplasma to begin with and you don’t need cats to extracted from.

Horrendous.

I love cats i actually have one and the thought of her in one of those lab brings me to tears. We accepted cats as pets not a tool to test on. THIS SHOULD BE ILLEGAL!!!!!! I want to do something but I’m 15 I cant give money I cant protest because I cant drive and school and I’m not sure they will listen to a 15 year old tell them what go do the best I can do is spread the word and I will.

This is an add-on to my last comment we want to do this to babies because their life they’re just starting we will do it to older people whose lives are getting ready to end or the Dead so why would we do it’s kittens whose lives are just starting why wouldn’t we do it to a cat who is suffering and needs to be put down haven’t be their final meal like their feces for 2 to 3 weeks and let them live a life of luxury and put them down they already suffering so we’re kind of doing them a favor by ending their suffering kittens are not suffering their lives are just beginning and the solution is only if you have to do it if you don’t have to do it don’t do it at all I would prefer nobody to do is not to any cat or kitten or puppy or dog any animal we shouldn’t kill animals just to live a life of luxury and also what if feces doesn’t work because it’s how the animals react to it what if people’s reactions are way different then you just killed like a hundred kittens for no reason I hope they’re happy with themselves for probably killing about 100 kittens for no reason this is animal cruelty and last time I heard you can put it more cruelly for animal cruelty then child abuse why is the government supporting this

Please stop experimenting on cats and kittens! Adopt the kittens and cats out! Stop the animal cruelty, the killing must stop!

If you think this is bad you all to see what they do to the bunnies and the monkeys and the mice

OMG! Awful!

OH NO!!! I just realized… what well Donald trump do to them?!?!?

Why bring kittens in this world… infect them … and take them back out again ???Smart huh🙄

Just disgusting. I am simply lost for words….

The USDA is useless. Why should kittens be killed due to their sickness, that USDA meaningfully gave them! Plus these beautiful animals just need some veterinary visits…and they would be PERFECT pets! Also the age that USDA is euthanizing them, is unremarkable! This kittens are barely starting their life yet USDA is ending them. And if it’s because USDA “loves dogs” & they “don’t like cats”…guess what, cats are living, breathing, valuble, amazing animals too! Oh and by the way I have NEVER owned a cat, I’ve only owned dogs…but this uselessness is giving me an outrage. Why are some people so cruel?!

Why would people do this to innocent cats

[…] had been going on in secret for 37 years, leading to the death of more than 3,000 cats, before the White Coat Waste Project (WCW) released an exposé about the […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] early 2018, the activist group White Coat Waste Project revealed the practice after receiving confirmation through FOIA requests. Justin Goodman, the vice […]

[…] early 2018, the activist group White Coat Waste Project revealed the practice after receiving confirmation through FOIA requests. Justin Goodman, the vice […]

[…] early 2018, the activist group White Coat Waste Project revealed the practice after receiving confirmation through FOIA requests. Justin Goodman, the vice […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

[…] Over 3,000 kittens were bred by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the sole reason of being infected with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii (T.gondii,) activists from the White Coat Project said in May 2018. […]

why would people do this? if I knew someone who was doing this I would steal the animal from them and take it to my house to nurture it

[…] to the advocacy’s group blog, documents, photos and animal purchase orders obtained via the Freedom of Information Act have […]

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