WASHINGTON, DC (NW) — A recent report has brought to light disturbing details about taxpayer-funded experiments involving the torture of cats, sparking outrage over government spending practices. The findings, revealed in Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) annual Festivus report and supported by the White Coat Waste Project, detail how federal agencies funneled millions of dollars into highly controversial research projects involving feline subjects.
The Department of Defense (DOD) reportedly spent $10.8 million on what has been described as an “Orwellian Cat Experiment” conducted through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) at the University of Pittsburgh. This experiment involved invasive procedures, including slicing open the backs of male cats to expose their spinal cords, followed by the insertion of electrodes to deliver electric shocks. The stated purpose? To induce erections in the animals—a process carried out while their incisions remained open.
The cruelty escalated as researchers severed the cats’ spinal cords, rendering their lower bodies paralyzed, only to continue shocking them for up to 10 minutes. In another experiment funded by DARPA, electrodes were attached to cats’ spinal cords, while marbles and condom-like balloons were inserted into their rectums. These cats were shocked to force defecation—a process one animal endured for over 11 minutes.
“These experiments, funded with nearly $11 million of taxpayer money, read more like scenes from a dystopian novel than legitimate scientific research,” the Festivus report stated.
Other examples of government-funded animal testing were equally disturbing. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), formerly led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allocated $2.24 million to Cornell University for a COVID-19 study involving cats. Healthy cats were infected with the virus, observed as they suffered, and ultimately euthanized. Even control group cats—those not infected—were killed.
According to the report, the cats were isolated in cages for the duration of the experiment, some dying just days after exposure.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) was also implicated, having spent $1.5 million on a study that involved training female kittens to submit to being strapped onto a spinning hydraulic table. The goal was to study motion sickness. The animals were subjected to disorienting spins, exposed to bright lights, and injected with copper sulfate to induce vomiting.
The NIH justified the study as an attempt to understand how motion sickness affects various species, but critics argue such experiments are cruel and unnecessary.
“These projects underscore the dangers of unchecked government spending, where funds are allocated to experiments that not only lack ethical justification but defy common sense,” the report concluded.
Animal rights advocates and fiscal watchdogs alike have called for stricter oversight of research funding to prevent similar projects in the future.