The VA recently shut down these horrific cat tests, funding has expired, and the experimenters involved at both facilities no longer have any active protocols involving cats, according to public documents from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) obtained by WCW.
The sickening tests, allegedly funded for the past five years by the VA and the NIH, consumed more than $5.9 million of taxpayer-supported funds and were slated to kill up to 80 kittens — all while yielding no patents, outcomes, clinical trials, or treatments for people to date. The tests included having the cats’ spines severed, their legs mutilated, their throats stuffed with balloons, and parts of their brains damaged.
In light of many horrific VA cat tests exposed by WCW over the years, Congress has now enacted historic WCW-backed legislation directing the VA to eliminate all experiments on cats, dogs, and nonhuman primates by 2026! The bipartisan effort in Washington was led by Congress members Dina Titus (D-NV), Brian Mast (R-FL), and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for kittens to be crippled, mutilated, and forced to walk on treadmills before being killed and tossed out like garbage,” said Anthony Bellotti, WCW’s president and founder. “Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike abhor their hard-earned tax dollars paying for these cruel cat experiments, and we applaud Congress for mandating an end to this wasteful government spending by the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
WCW first learned in 2019 that white coats at the VA and UL were slashing kittens’ spinal cords and “training” the crippled cats to navigate obstacle courses and treadmills before they were decerebrated — a process that severed their brainstems and essentially cut off the cats’ brain function while they were still alive, according to public records obtained by WCW.
The experiments were terminal — meaning any cat who survived the invasive procedures was killed at the end of the experiment.
Those casualties included Pecan (Known in the lab as #15KQC4), a female tabby “eager for head rubs and chin rubs,” and Torti (ID number #M209629), a tiny orange tabby whom experimenters noted was “playful and purring” four days before they killed her, according to public record documents obtained by WCW.
Other victims included a female kitten known only as #M209882, whom at one point “was purring so loudly” that the experimenter reportedly “couldn’t hear,” and female tabby #19008, who was “very friendly and affectionate,” also according to public record documents.
In the past few years, WCW has also shut down a kitten mutilation lab at the Los Angeles Department of Veteran Affairs and kitten cannibalism experiments by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Services, which was funded by the NIH for testing on cats and intentionally breeding sick kittens. Thankfully, WCW secured the release of numerous cat survivors.
“But there’s still more work to be done,” said WCW’s Bellotti. “When the money stops, the killing stops. We’re proud of the progress we’re making to ensure that taxpayers are not subsidizing the suffering of vulnerable cats and dogs in labs. Stop the money. Stop the madness!”
Animal,animal news,nature,wildlife
