UPDATE (4/2/19): Following a year-long White Coat Waste Project campaign, the USDA announced that its kitten slaughterhouse will close permanently and the 14 surviving cats will be adopted out. Read more.
UPDATE (2/15/19): After being passed by Congress this summer, this legislation has been signed into law by President Donald Trump as part of a 2019 federal spending bill.
Original post (5/29/18)
Just three weeks after White Coat Waste Project exposed deadly taxpayer-funded kitten experiments at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)–and our supporters sent nearly 100,000 letters to Congress and the USDA–lawmakers are taking action.
Photos of cats confined at the USDA’s lab in Beltsville, MD obtained via the Freedom of Information Act by WCW.
As reported by POLITICO, CBN and WJLA, last week, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee–which controls the budgets of the USDA and other federal agencies–unanimously passed its 2019 Agriculture spending bill, including language supported by WCW that urges the USDA to end its kitten experiments and adopt out the cats. Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and John Hoeven (R-ND)–the top lawmakers on the USDA’s funding panel–and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) secured this important measure in the bill with support from Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and others on the committee. Next, the bill heads to the full Senate for a vote.
U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations just approved 2019 Ag Spending Bill which asks @USDA to find alternative testing & not kill kittens in experiments & start kitten adoption program at Maryland lab which @ABC7News & @WhiteCoatWaste exposed earlier this month. pic.twitter.com/bkgKMgvRFr
— Scott Taylor ABC 7 (@ScottTaylorTV) May 24, 2018
The Senate’s action follows Reps. Mike Bishop (R-MI) and Jimmy Panetta’s (D-CA) introduction of the bipartisan KITTEN Act to permanently end the experiments.