Wednesday, April 3, 2019

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has stopped a controversial research practice that critics have called “archaic” today, saying that this change comes after “feedback of our customers and stakeholders”.

In the practice, which began in 1982, cats were infected with toxoplasmosis, put down, and incinerated. According to Justin Goodman, vice president of the White Coat Waste Project this was done in order to “understand how widespread the parasitic disease is in animals around the world”. He continued, claiming that “at eight weeks, [scientists] would feed them infected meat, harvest parasitic eggs from their feces to be used in other experiments, then kill them”.

The practice became widely known by the public after the White Coat Waste Project reported that the USDA also forced cats to both eat dogs, and to commit cannibalistic acts by eating the meat of other cats. The public outcry in the wake of the revelation caused the legislation “Kittens in Traumatic Testing Ends Now Act of 2018” to be considered in the United States.

Senator Jeff Merkley, a member of the Democratic Party from Oregon responded to the ceasing of the practice by saying “The USDA made the right decision today, and I applaud them for their willingness to change course”. Jimmy Panetta, a Democratic representative from California responded by saying “I commend the USDA for their decision to end this type of testing on kittens. They listened to the people and responded appropriately to our concerns. This is how our institutions, our government, and our democracy should and must work.” Republican Representative Brian Mast of Florida said “With all the awful reports coming out, it was clear that Americans opposed USDA’s cruel testing on kittens. This is a decisive victory against government animal abuse and wasteful spending.”

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