VICTORY UPDATE - April 2, 2019: See USDA Press Release [ARS Announces Toxoplasmosis Research Review, Discontinues Research with Cats] AND from NBC News [No more 'kitten slaughterhouse': Government halts deadly cat experiments]
TAKE ACTION! Tell Congress to Pass the Kitten Act
The USDA breeds up to 100 kittens a year, feeds them parasite-infected meat in order to have the parasite’s eggs harvested for use in other experiments, and then kills the kittens. This bill [Kittens in Traumatic Testing Ends Now KITTEN Act] would essentially stop this process.
To date, the project has consumed $22 million tax dollars and taken the lives of 3,000 kittens.
The use of animals for extreme and outdated experimentation is
sadly not rare - SueMack/Getty Images
In December, the Senate introduced legislation called the Kittens in
Traumatic Testing Ends Now (KITTEN) Act, the companion to a bipartisan House
bill of the same name targeting outdated food safety experiments at the US
Department of Agriculture (USDA). As Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) explained
to CNN when he introduced the bill, “The USDA breeds up to 100 kittens a
year, feeds them parasite-infected meat in order to have the parasite’s eggs
harvested for use in other experiments, and then kills the kittens. This
bill would essentially stop this process.” To date, the project has consumed
$22 million tax dollars and taken the lives of 3,000 kittens.
I was disturbed, but not at all surprised, when I read about the experiment,
because for two decades, I worked as a veterinarian and researcher at the
USDA’s Meat Animal Research Center (MARC) in Nebraska, the world’s largest
livestock research center. When I finally blew the whistle on the extensive
government waste and animal abuse I witnessed at the USDA, it destroyed my
career, and ultimately, my marriage. But I would do it again.
As I explain in Natalie Portman’s recent documentary, Eating Animals, soon
after starting at MARC, a colleague sought my assistance with a “downed cow”
unable to stand on her own. The young heifer was corralled with six bulls in
a sexual libido experiment. Libido is typically measured by placing one bull
with one cow in heat for 15 minutes. However, the bulls continuously mounted
the heifer, immobilized in a restraint device so she could not escape, for
hours. Her back legs were broken. MARC denied me permission to euthanize
her. She died hours later from her severe injuries.
Sadly, this extreme “research project” was not an anomaly.
MARC uses more than $22 million taxpayer dollars and 35,000 animals
annually, focusing on science and technology to make red meat production
more efficient and profitable. In addition, MARC performs heavily
taxpayer-subsidized targeted research on behalf of livestock commodity
groups. USDA in-house agricultural research receives a total of $1.2 billion
annually from taxpayers, and MARC is just one of 36 total USDA livestock
animal research facilities. Precise figures for USDA animal research
investments and attendant waste are impossible to ascertain, in part because
the government obfuscates financial and animal use data.
According to the USDA’s website, “[MARC] research will be used to develop
technologies that can be implemented into production programs which will
reduce production costs and improve carcass merit.” In lay terms, their
quest is to boost livestock industry profits. In the process, MARC
researchers undertake all manner of senseless experiments, and scientific
and fiduciary malpractice that cost animals and taxpayers dearly.
For instance, cows usually have one offspring. In nature, less than 2
percent have twins. MARC scientists decided to try and double production
efficiency by increasing twinning frequency. From 1981 until 2011, MARC
raised one herd’s twinning rate to over 50 percent using intense genetic
selection. However, twinning in cows is unnatural; evolution so decided over
millions of years. Twinning cows and their offspring suffered from sickness,
congenital defects and early death. After 30 years and countless tax
dollars, MARC abandoned the project. There is no market for twinning cows.
In fact, most farmers cull cows birthing twins due to the well-known
associated health problems.
I supported intensive livestock farming and research for decades. However, I
gradually turned against factory farming, in part from the alternative
example of sustainable, environment- and animal-respectful practices I
observed on my daughter Hannah’s small organic farm. So after decades of
witnessing and facilitating MARC’s indefensible projects, in 2014, I went to
The New York Times to share evidence of these abuses.
One experiment I reported was the so-called “Easy Care” sheep project
designed to resurrect the dying US sheep industry. The goal was to create a
new sheep breed requiring minimal human labor via brutal neo-Darwinian
selection. From 2002 to 2017, countless sheep birthing twins or triplets
were kept year-round on isolated pastures without shelter or shade.
Shepherds were prohibited, by experimental protocol, from intervening to
care for ewes or lambs in need. Predictably, human-dependent domestic sheep
treated like wild sheep fared poorly. Over 15 years, countless lambs died
from coyote predation, starvation, exposure, abandonment, difficult birth
and disease. The research failed completely, squandering untold tax dollars.
For going public with my concerns, I was surveilled by law enforcement
and interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a possible
“eco-terrorist.” I was banished from MARC, “interviewed” by University of
Nebraska (a MARC partner) police, called “the most evil person on the
planet” by the MARC director, and eventually transferred 100 miles away.
Whistleblowing placed an enormous strain on my personal and professional
life. I incurred large legal and medical expenses. My career suffered, but
survived. Sadly, my 32-year-long marriage did not. I knew the risks and I am
responsible for my actions and their consequences. However, as an American
taxpayer, veterinarian sworn to protect animals, and federal employee who
was a steward of public dollars, I felt obliged to expose this government
waste and abuse.
For its part, the USDA essentially received a few slaps on the wrist, and
evidence uncovered last year shows that major animal welfare problems
persist at MARC and other agency facilities. In addition to the kitten
testing mentioned above, inspection reports from several USDA facilities
show that in 2017, more than a dozen ducks died of dehydration, 38 turkeys
died of starvation, and dozens of quails were found dead in a lab with a
temperature of 130 degrees Fahrenheit when a heating system failed and there
was no warning system in place to alert staff of the temperature change.
I believe most Americans and even livestock producers would be hard-pressed
to support some experiments the USDA is doing or has done on their behalf
and with their money. A 2018 national poll of 1,000 Americans commissioned
by the taxpayer watchdog White Coat Waste Project found 68 percent of voters
want to reduce taxpayer-funded research intended to benefit agribusiness.
I put my career and family on the line to expose USDA waste and abuse.
Congress must now act to protect animal welfare and prevent further misuse
of American tax dollars on cruel and unnecessary research. Supporting the
bipartisan, common sense KITTEN Act to get cats out of the USDA’s horrific
labs is a great start.
This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute.