- White Coat Waste’s (WCW) latest investigation has exposed yet another example of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) misleading American taxpayers about funding deadly pet testing.
- Videos and other records obtained through a WCW lawsuit and investigation have uncovered how the NIH is still bankrolling a University of Florida (UF) lab approved to abuse up to 119 cats and kittens in a disturbing breeding and experimentation operation.
- In this program, which has cost taxpayers $2,639,706 to date, kittens are bred with a devastating disease that causes progressive neurological decline, loss of muscle control, dementia, and difficulty swallowing.
- Every kitten tortured in these experiments at UF is ultimately killed — either at 24 weeks old, after being experimented on for up to three years, or when the disease progresses so severely that the cats can no longer function.
- This week, the NIH’s House funding panel advanced WCW-backed legislation cutting funding for painful testing on cats and dogs in the agency’s 2027 spending bill.
- WCW’s exposés have revealed how the NIH has doled out nearly $150 million in new funding for dog and cat testing at UF and other labs despite claiming last year to be “working tirelessly” to phase it out.
In April 2025, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., promised “a dramatic reduction in animal testing” at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Soon after, the NIH’s ‘animal testing czar,’ Deputy Director Nicole Kleinstreuer, claimed that the agency’s funding for dog and cat experiments “predates” her appointment to senior leadership in April 2025 and that the agency is “working tirelessly” to end them.
But White Coat Waste’s (WCW) latest investigation and August 2025 Freedom of Information Act lawsuit have secured receipts exposing another kitten catastrophe still being funded on their watch.
We uncovered a University of Florida (UF) lab approved to abuse up to 119 cats and kittens in a breeding operation where the animals are intentionally bred with a fatal neurodegenerative disease. These disturbing tests are bankrolled by $2,639,706 in active NIH funding that is supposed to run through November 2026.
This project inflicts suffering on cats intentionally bred with Niemann-Pick type C1 (NPC1) — a devastating condition that causes progressive neurological decline, loss of muscle control, dementia, and difficulty swallowing — in gruesome gene therapy experiments.
The abuse begins when the kittens are just three weeks old. According to records obtained by WCW, UF white coats subject the felines to brain and carotid artery injections, repeated blood and tissue sample collections, and neurological and behavioral tests.
🚨 EXCLUSIVE 🚨:
University of Florida @UF Kitten Torture Exposed
White Coat Waste @WhiteCoatWaste has exclusively shared this disturbing video and other documents with me that expose Biden-era kitten torture experiments at the University of Florida that are still being funded… pic.twitter.com/QBky8MDrkC
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) June 12, 2026
Even as the cats’ health deteriorates, testing presses on. NIH-funded experimenters push the kittens to power through their pain with padded cages and feeding assistance after they lose the ability to eat independently.
A cat at the University of Florida’s NIH-funded lab who was bred to suffer from Niemann-Pick disorder.
Every cat in UF’s lab tortured in these experiments is ultimately killed — either at 24 weeks old, the typical lifespan for untreated felines with NPC1, after being kept in the lab for up to three years, or when the disease progresses so severely that the kittens can no longer function.
Even cats not directly used in the project’s primary experiments aren’t safe. Some kittens produced in the breeding colony may be shared with other laboratories and subjected to additional testing.
The white coats behind this lab claim that euthanasia is necessary “due to concerns for quality of life” of the kittens. But if they genuinely cared about these animals, they wouldn’t breed them to die in the first place.
RFK Jr., Nicole Kleinstreuer, and the NIH can’t pretend to be “working tirelessly” to phase out pet testing while doling out nearly $150 million in new funding for barbaric cat and dog experiments worldwide since taking office last year.
Most taxpayers, and many Republican and Democratic Congress members representing Florida, oppose the NIH’s cruel, wasteful kitten experiments and want to send them to the litter box of history.
This week, the NIH’s House funding panel advanced WCW-backed legislation cutting funding for painful testing on cats and dogs in the agency’s 2027 spending bill. That bill will be voted on by the full House next, and then head to the Senate.
BREAKING:
Congress is about to advance a ban on NIH funding for “painful” dog and cat experiments.
This is the most impactful legislation for dogs and cats EVER.
We helped get this funding ban into the 2027 NIH spending bill, which a pro-animal-testing lobbyist just called… pic.twitter.com/BFz1Oo89vJ
— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) June 8, 2026
For years, WCW has been working with bipartisan Florida lawmakers — including Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Darren Soto (D-FL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Byron Donalds (R-FL), and Brian Mast (R-FL) — to cut funding for NIH-funded cat labs.
Tell Congress to pass the PAAW Act to defund painful testing on pets!
