Whether you’re a dog or cat person, I think we can all agree that the killing of innocent kittens is indisputably wrong.
Yet, a recent report from a nonprofit organization “White Coat Waste Project” has detailed the cruel and unusual ways that the U.S government is funding the Department of Agriculture to test and kill lab cats with taxpayer dollars. (To see the full report: “Click Here”)
For 37 years the U.S has been trying to keep the grim details of their experimentation under wraps. But today we are here to expose the horrific details of their unjust practices. The report, which was released on March 20th, details the bizarre experiments that exposed lab bred kittens to the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, and then proceeded to force the cats into cannibalism.
So why did the USDA decided to test cats and kittens? Well the T.gondii parasite is one of the most prominent parasitic infections in the world, and it’s the leading cause of death by foodborne illnesses in the U.S. Most individuals get infected through raw meats and shellfish but another way one could become infected is through contaminated cat poop. Yup, if your cat is prone to eating or bring small mammals like birds or rodents then they can transmit T.gondii to you.
So, yes one could reasonably argue that the USDA’s cats experiments would help us “understand how prevalent toxoplasmosis was in animals around the world” but in fact “these kitten cannibalism experiments have absolutely no relevance to human or animal health and, frankly, sound more like an entry in the diary of a burgeoning serial killer than anything else” said said Justin Goodman (vice president of The White Coat Waste Project)
Truthfully, when I first heard about this USDA cat killing scandal I thought it was a hoax. My first thought was “Seriously, there is not way we are doing this in 2019!” Yet, it is all true. Through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) White Coat Waste Project was able to obtain the actual facts surrounding the case, such as:
- How the USDA project currently receives $650,000 a year in taxpayer funds.
- How the agency has spent $22.5 million and killed more than 3,000 cats for this project since the it began in 1982.
- How all of this us occurring at the Animal Parasitic Disease Laboratory (APDL) in Beltsville, Maryland (just 2.5 hours from JMU.)
- How the kittens are infected at 8 weeks old, and have their poop samples taken, and then quickly develop an imminuty to the parasite, but instead of being adopted out of the program, the 10-11 week old kittens are killed because they are no longer useful.
- How more than 300 Colombian shelter dogs were killed, and their brains, tongues and hearts fed to USDA lab cats; in another, nearly 50 stray cats from Ethiopia were killed, and their hearts fed to mice in the lab.
So… just to say it louder for the people at the back….
USDA’s use of cats for toxoplasmosis experiments and killing of cats at the completion of the experiments is unnecessary and unjustifiable! The contributions of USDA cat experimentation to improving public health is limited, especially in the last two decades. Finally, much of USDA’s toxoplasmosis research is irrelevant to American public health and the USDA’s mission, including feeding dogs and cats purchased at Chinese meat markets to laboratory cats at the USDA.
Cat cannibalism is cruel, harmful, and most of all pointless! Lets not kill healthy kittens because the USDA thinks that they aren’t “useful.”
Good News: there’s been a bipartisan bill that has been reintroduced to congress called the “Kitten Act” that, if passed, can permanently end the USDA’s practice of killing cats and kittens once and for all.
What you can do: Sign the petitions that are available online to show your support for the Kitten Act! Take action and let’s all fight Animal Cruelty together!
Petitions:
Read more from ShoutOut! on PETA and Emotional Support Animals.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 
@devilwearsgoodwill I WILL TAKE A KITTEN, TO SAVE A KITTEN! This is so sad. Thank you for bringing importance to this tragic issue. Animals can be useful in many ways, the kittens can be therapeutic for certain people… maybe bring them to a children’s ward at a hospital who are in long term care? (I’m sure they’d love that!)
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This was so eye-opening and informative. I had no idea that Disease Laboratories are experimenting on cats, and I am appalled at how it is happening only a few hours away in Maryland. Thank you for bringing awareness to this horrible practice..together we can band together to save these innocent animals!
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