



Following an intensive year-long White Coat Waste Project (WCW) campaign, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has just announced it is ending all cat experiments and adopting out the 14 cats remaining at its laboratory. The news comes just two weeks after WCW released its report exposing the USDA’s kitten cannibalism experiments using cats and dogs purchased from meat markets in China.

No more ‘kitten slaughterhouse’: Government halts deadly cat experiments https://t.co/beJyqijgVb via @nbcnews — Dareh Gregorian (@darehgregorian) April 2, 2019

The USDA is ending a research program that led scientists to kill thousands of cats over decades. The experiments came under scrutiny after a report found the researchers forced the lab cats to eat dog and cat meat obtained in overseas markets.https://t.co/UfvwOHgkxS — NPR (@NPR) April 3, 2019

USDA says it will end all experiments on kittens at its Maryland laboratory after a bipartisan bill filed last month described the practice as “taxpayer-funded kitten slaughter.” https://t.co/U62Ag4RQ2d pic.twitter.com/bRn73HuSl8 — World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) April 2, 2019

WCW first exposed the USDA’s secretive 37-year-old kitten experimentation laboratory in May 2018 using the Freedom of Information Act, and launched a grassroots and lobbying campaign to end the wasteful program that wasted over $22 million and killed and incinerated more than 3,000 healthy kittens. The USDA continued to spend $650,000 annually and kill up to 100 kittens in the project, but that’s now been stopped for good.

The USDA halted its controversial “kitten cannibalism” research program https://t.co/qwAdvjurFM — TIME (@TIME) April 2, 2019

Over one million WCW supporters called on USDA to stop the testing and release the cats. WCW’s first amendment lawsuit compelled the State of Maryland to run our eye-catching bus and train ads criticizing the testing. And our open records lawsuit forced USDA to turn over documents about its “kitten slaughterhouse.”

The USDA is discontinuing its practice of infecting kittens with parasites for research purposes https://t.co/Ar9umNb6Vd pic.twitter.com/RVxtzzblgd — CNN (@CNN) April 2, 2019

Congress responded almost immediately to WCW’s exposé. Representative Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), former Rep. Mike Bishop (D-MI) and Senator Jeff Merkley introduced the bipartisan KITTEN Act to end the USDA’s cat experiments. The bill, which was reintroduced for the new Congressional session just two weeks ago by Panetta, Merkley and Reps. Brian Mast (R-FL), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Will Hurd (R-TX) has already garnered over 50 Republican and Democrat cosponsors so far this Congressional session. Last year, Congress and President Trump also enacted legislation urging the USDA to end the testing and adopt out the cats.

The USDA has announced that it will end its practice of feeding kittens parasite-infected meat and/or other kittens. https://t.co/tHLyOZmfrx — reason (@reason) April 2, 2019

This is an historic victory and we’re proud to share it with the 2 million WCW supporters who helped make it possible!