WCW Investigation Closes Cat Lab, Spares Kittens from NIH-Funded Experiments

• Five years ago, a White Coat Waste Project (WCW) investigation and campaign shut down the government’s largest cat experimentation lab, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Kitten Slaughterhouse, and saved over two dozen cats from certain death.
• A new WCW investigation just exposed and exterminated a misguided plan by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund a resurrection of these wasteful and deadly kitten experiments at the University of California-Davis.
• In the proposed project, NIH-funded white coats planned to force-feed ten tiny kittens scrambled mouse brains and then kill the healthy cats after collecting their feces.
• Two days after receiving a WCW request for records about the kitten lab, UC-Davis contacted the NIH to cancel the experiments
• WCW’s latest victory spares the lives of ten more kittens. 
• WCW is the only animal protection organization to shut down federal feline labs in at least 40 years.
• We’re working with Congress to pass the bipartisan PAAW Act to cut funding for all NIH funding for painful cat experiments.

WCW is a bipartisan campaign to obliterate the U.S. government’s cat experimentation business. Our new investigation just shut down a misguided plan for wasteful kitten experiments. And it spared ten more cats from pain and death at taxpayers’ expense!

Here's how we did it: Five years ago, a WCW campaign shut down the government’s largest cat experimentation lab, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Kitten Slaughterhouse. Our effort saved over two dozen cats from certain deaths and got them placed into loving homes, including with our president and founder.   

WCW exposed how the USDA forced 3,254 lab kittens to eat diseased parts of 2,182 dogs and cats—strays and pets obtained from China and other foreign wet markets.

Then, parasites that cause Toxoplasmosis were collected from kittens’ feces for use in other experiments. All kittens were killed and incinerated even though they were healthy and adoptable.

$22.5 million in taxes. 50 years of wasteful spending. 5,436 lives lost.

FROM LAB CAT TO “LAP CAT:” Petite (formerly #15KEY5) was rescued from USDA’s Kitten Slaughterhouse by WCW founder Anthony Bellotti.

Now, a WCW investigation has uncovered—and killed—a plan for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund a resurrection of these wasteful kitten experiments at the University of California-Davis (UC-Davis).

Documents obtained by WCW via Freedom of Information Act requests show that since 2022 the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)—the division formerly run by Dr. Fauci—has shipped over $419,000 to UC-Davis to establish a new Kitten Slaughterhouse for toxoplasmosis experiments just like the ones we shut down at the USDA.

Records show that UC-Davis planned to feed scrambled, diseased mice brains to up to ten kittens who would be obtained from the lab’s in-house colony and each be locked in cages all alone.

The documents detail how UC-Davis white coats are authorized to shove tubes into the kittens’ throats and force-feed them the mouse brains. The protocol describes how this could cause aspiration, or the brains entering the kittens’ lungs instead of stomachs, and how the kittens also may experience adverse effects including fever and diarrhea. 

Back in 2018 and 2019, the NIH paid UC-Davis to do similar experiments on kittens as young as two months old.

In grant documents obtained by WCW, UC-Davis explained that it intended to conduct these taxpayer-funded kitten experiments in 2024. The NIH website shows that the project would be funded through 2025. 

The taxpayer funding was granted to UC-Davis by NIAID under Dr. Fauci even though scientists widely admit these cat experiments are wasteful because alternatives are available. This isn't the first time we exposed—and stopped—completely unnecessary experiments on pets funded by Fauci.

However, we have now confirmed that just two days after receiving WCW’s requests for related documents in January 2024, UC-Davis contacted the NIH to say they completely canceled their kitten testing plans.  

This is further proof that sunlight is the best disinfectant! WCW forcing UC-Davis to be transparent and accountable to the taxpayers footing the bill for their wasteful kitten lab plans was enough to kill it and spare 10 innocent cats from pain and death.

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