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 (06/08/19)

L-R: Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), “The Kitten Lady” Hannah Shaw, and Rep. Mike Bishop (R-MI)

Yesterday, White Coat Waste Project hosted a Capitol Hill briefing featuring world-famous kitten advocate Hannah Shaw (The Kitten Lady) to build even more Congressional support for the bipartisan KITTEN Act to end deadly taxpayer-funded kitten experiments at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The event was co-hosted by Reps. Mike Bishop (R-MI) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), who introduced the KITTEN Act last month.

As reported by Roll Call, the Detroit News, Washington, D.C.’s ABC affiliate WJLA, and POLITICO, over 300 lawmakers, Congressional staffers, and reporters attended the event to learn more about WCW and the KITTEN Act.

Shaw brought three 8-week-old kittens–Anya, Leeni and Rizzo–with her to serve as feline ambassadors and let Congress know the true cost of the government’s wasteful kitten experiments. The kittens being experimented on by the USDA—as Shaw explains in this viral video–are the exact same age as these tiny kittens when they are senselessly killed by the government.

WCW and Shaw also met lawmakers privately to thank them for their leadership on the KITTEN Act, including Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) who also been helping lead the charge to defund wasteful dog testing at the Department of Veterans Affairs:

Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR)–who is leading the KITTEN effort in the Senate–made this video with WCW and Kitten Lady to educate his constituents about the issue: