Action Alert: Help Pass the KITTEN Act to Prevent Harmful and Unnecessary Kitten Experiments Funded by Taxpayers

Last week, we let you know about the cruel kitten experiments being conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Researchers purposefully infect kittens with toxoplasma gondii by feeding them tainted meat and then kill the kittens after they shed the virus in their stool. These experiments have been occurring for years and have resulted in the death of many innocent lives. The exact number of kittens used in the experiment is unknown; White Coast Waste Project, who broke the story, estimates 100 kittens a year, although the USDA refutes this number.

Not only is the use of kittens as test tubes harmful and unnecessary, but the kittens are simply killed and incinerated at the end of experiments. As Representative Michael Bishop puts it in a stern letter to Secretary Sonny Perdue, “[the USDA] was treating the life of animals with such contempt.” Toxoplasma gondii is not a death sentence for cats and there is no reason the kittens cannot be treated and adopted into loving homes.

Representative Mike Bishop followed up his letter to the USDA by introducing H.R. 5780 - Kittens in Traumatic Testing Ends Now Act of 2018 (KITTEN Act). The bill will direct the Secretary of Agriculture to end the use of cats in experiments that cause pain or stress, effectively ending not only the toxoplasma gondii tests but many other invasive experiments as well. Reach out to your legislators and let them know you support H.R. 5780. A companion bill has not been introduced in the Senate yet, so ask your Senators to introduce a Senate bill on ending cat experiments today!

H.R. 5780 is headed to the House Committee on Agriculture for a vote. If your representative is on this committee it is especially important that you contact them and ask them to vote for H.R. 5780. Check and see if your representative is on the committee here.
You can also help end the toxoplasma gondii kitten experiments by signing Alley Cat Rescue’s petition.

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