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 (03/22/19)

Following White Coat Waste Project’s new exposé of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s taxpayer-funded kitten cannibalism experiments, federal lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are sounding off about the wasteful and abusive program:

The fact that innocent animals are being rounded up, killed and fed to other lab cats in the United States is simply disgusting and unjustifiable. This needs to end NOW.https://t.co/aI440EGfUG

— Rep. Brian Mast (@RepBrianMast) March 20, 2019

DEEPLY disturbing that @USDA has been purchasing cats and dogs from notoriously inhumane meat markets in Asia, then feeding the meat to animals they’re experimenting on. We can advance scientific discovery while treating animals humanely — we need the #KITTENAct NOW. https://t.co/0WylYLtcHk

— Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) March 19, 2019

I’m troubled by reports that the @USDA has been buying cats & dogs at foreign meat markets & feeding them to cats in a US government lab. We need to stop this kind of abusive research. #KITTENact #EndAnimalAbuse https://t.co/Xh07ydD076

— Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) March 20, 2019

This is horrific. Congress must prevent government agencies from wasting taxpayer dollars to conduct cruel experiments on animals. I’ll continue to lead this fight and support legislation to put an end to this kind of grotesque abuse. https://t.co/Eo8Pnyo2Sq

— Dina Titus (@repdinatitus) March 19, 2019

Reports that @USDA has been buying cats & dogs in foreign markets & feeding them to kittens in US govt labs are disgusting & inhumane.

As a cosponsor of the #KITTENAct I’m working to end these practices & advance scientific discovery w/out animal cruelty. https://t.co/hjHrhyyRWd

— Sean Patrick Maloney (@RepSeanMaloney) March 21, 2019

Tell your Congress members to join these lawmakers by cosponsoring the bipartisan KITTEN Act to permanently defund these wasteful and deadly taxpayer-funded cat experiments!