happy bday, Petite ❤️
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Dear Taxpayer,
This week, my cat Petite – formerly govt ID #15KEY5 – turns 8 years old. Will you help us celebrate by signing her official birthday card?
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Sign Bday Card >>
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For those of you who don’t know, Petite is a very special cat.
She went from lab cat to lap cat after the White Coat Waste Project (WCW) exposed and closed the federal
government’s biggest kitten experimentation lab!
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Taxpayer, Petite’s birthday wish is simple: to get the
U.S. government out of the cat testing business. It’s also the mission of the WCW Project.
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If you have a moment, please join me in wishing Petite the best 8th birthday
ever. Let’s make her birthday wish a reality!
Sign Bday Card >>
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Stop the Money. Stop the Madness!
Anthony Bellotti
President & Founder
White Coat Waste Project
P.S. Taxpayer, we’re proud to have shut down more
government kitten labs than any organization in history. No other group has
closed any in at least 40 years! But our work’s not done yet. So, after you sign Petite’s birthday card
[[link removed]] , please read her story below.
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The Tale of Two Lab Kittens: The One We Saved, The One We Didn't, And Why It's
Historic
[[link removed]] This op-ed was originally published
[[link removed]] by Sentient Media on May 13, 2021.
This is a tale of two cats, Petite and Sif.
As kittens, they were sold by the same “kitten mill” to the United States
government to be abused then killed in painful taxpayer-funded experiments.
For Petite (a.k.a. government ID# 15KEY5), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Kitten
Slaughterhouse.” For Sif (a.k.a. government ID #17LFC4), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
White Coat Waste Project recently shut down Sif’s home. Two years prior, we gave
Petite’s lab the same treatment.
However, the two kittens’ stories diverge from there.
[{EXTERNAL_URL~[link removed]}] FROM LAB CAT TO “LAP CAT:” MEET PETITE, FORMERLY #15KEY5. PETITE’S FEDERAL ID
WAS PERMANENTLY TATTOOED IN BOTH EARS AT THE GOVERNMENT’S LARGEST CAT LAB.
The One We Saved.
Petite’s story is the pure distillation of something we call: FOIA to freedom.
We started with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) investigation into Petite’s secret government laboratory
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Petite was sold to USDA’s Kitten Slaughterhouse in 2016 by a company called
Liberty Research that supplies animals to government labs. She was just over a
year old.
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The government noted that she was a “little cat.” So it gave her the name Lil
Petite.
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The feds turned Petite into a breeder— an incubator for more lab specimens.
For nearly half a century, the USDA slaughtered and incinerated 3,000 of these
healthy and adoptable kittens in toxoplasmosis experiments.
Nobody knew about it. Not even Congress.
The USDA also purchased cat and dog meat
[[link removed]] from China’s live animal markets and fed it to Petite’s kittens in cannibalism
experiments. It wasted over $22 million taxpayer dollars.
Think about that for a minute: dog and cat meat markets abroad. Taxpayer-funded
animal experimentation at home… and you were the customer!
We exposed the USDA’s receipts
[[link removed]] to the international media. Then we united 3 million liberty lovers and animal
lovers and rallied “Waste Warriors” in Congress
[[link removed]] to close Petite’s lab and retire the survivors .
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From FOIA to freedom, it took about a year to defund and defeat the largest cat lab in the entire federal government.
[{EXTERNAL_URL~[link removed]}] FOIA TO FREEDOM: PETITE, ON THE RIDE HOME, THE DAY WE RESCUED HER FROM USDA’S
KITTEN SLAUGHTERHOUSE.
The One We Didn’t.
Sif was also bred by Liberty Research but sold to a different government lab on May 8, 2018. She, too, was just past her first birthday.
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Sif was bought by the Los Angeles VA Medical Center—one of three taxpayer-funded kitten labs
[[link removed]] the VA has been operating, alongside labs in Cleveland
[[link removed]] and Louisville
[[link removed]] .
We discovered Sif’s secretive lab
[[link removed]] by piecing together data from FOIA requests, government spending records,
federal databases, and lawsuits.
Live cats had holes drilled in their skulls. The victims were suffocated, their
oxygen cut off as part of ongoing sleep experiments.
Electrodes were implanted into their brains. Some had electrodes implanted in
their tongues and chins, as well, and had “head caps” cemented to their
fractured skulls.
Once deemed no longer useful, blood was drained from their bodies. Then their
brains were removed for dissection.
The grants funding VA’s cat experiments, in total, have cost taxpayers over $10
million.
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The VA didn’t want you to know the details of what they did to Sif.
We had to sue
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The last record of Sif’s life is dated January 2020. It’s of Sif’s weight. She
was 3.44 kilograms—about 7.5 pounds. Just a wee cat, too, like Petite.
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In March 2021, a brave whistleblower came forward and exposed how the VA had
killed Sif and every other kitten.
But Sif’s death was a bittersweet coda to another great victory…
Why It’s Historic.
Just days after our lawsuit, and following advocacy from world-famous Kitten Lady
[[link removed]] , CBS News confirmed we ended all cat experiments
[[link removed]] at the Los Angeles VA.
One down, two to go. And with the closure of USDA’s Kitten Slaughterhouse, the
VA now operates the U.S. government’s last major kitten labs.
Cleveland and Louisville are ground zero in White Coat Waste Project’s historic
campaign to end all painful cat experiments across the entire federal government.
That’s why 30 Democrats and Republicans in Congress are reaching across party
lines to pass the CATS Act
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[{EXTERNAL_URL~[link removed]}] LAB CAT TO LAP CAT: PETITE AND DELILAH IN THEIR POST-GOVERNMENT LAB HOME.
Petite now lives in a loving home, probably a lot like yours. Her favorite
activities include snuggling, head bonks, and making biscuits. She’s gone from lab cat to lap cat! I know how much Petite loves her new life because I actually adopted her.
Petite and Delilah
[[link removed]] , another Kitten Slaughterhouse survivor, live with me and my significant
other. So this tale of two cats is very personal to me.
But it’s personal for you too. You are still paying the government to abuse kittens.
When the money stops, the killing stops. With your help
[[link removed]] , we’ll close this shameful chapter in American history… and dump wasteful
government cat experiments into the litter box of history.
Anthony Bellotti is the president and founder of White Coat Waste Project, a
3-million-member watchdog group that works to find, expose and defund $20
billion in wasteful taxpayer-funded animal experiments.
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Sign Bday Card >>
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[[link removed]]Taxpayers shouldn't be forced to pay $20 billion+ for wasteful government animal experiments.
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White Coat Waste Project (WCW) is a 501(c)(3) government watchdog. Contributions
are tax-deductible.
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