- A new White Coat Waste (WCW) investigation exposes National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded experiments at Temple University involving 36 cats, including severing spinal cords, removing parts of their brains, and conducting invasive tests before killing them.
- NIH has awarded the project more than $1.8 million, including $655,659 since Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took office — another receipt behind WCW’s MAHA Betrayed investigation exposing over $225 million in new NIH spending on dog and cat experiments under his leadership.
- Records obtained by WCW through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) detail spinal cord cutting, electrode implantation, electrical stimulation, and treadmill testing, with risks including muscle wasting, infections, and self-mutilation.
- WCW previously exposed how NIH under Secretary Kennedy extended kitten heart failure experiments at Temple University and awarded new funding to labs that breed kittens with glaucoma and drill kittens’ skulls and induce strokes.
- WCW is driving congressional efforts to cut dog and cat lab funding, defund maximum pain experiments, ban breeding dogs for testing, and promote lab animal retirement.
White Coat Waste’s (WCW) MAHA Betrayed investigation exposed more than $225 million in new NIH spending on dog and cat experiments since Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took office, despite promises to reduce animal testing and phase out pet experiments.
Now, records obtained by WCW through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request related to NIH grant R01NS124820 reveal plans to use 36 cats in invasive spinal cord injury experiments at Temple University — exposing more taxpayer-funded cruelty behind NIH’s spending.
The project began in February 2022 and is scheduled to run through January 31, 2027. Federal spending databases list $1,800,120 in awards, including $316,074 issued on February 20, 2025 — one week after RFK took office — and another $339,585 awarded in 2026.
That is $655,659 in additional taxpayer funding under RFK for a laboratory whose plans include cutting cats’ spinal cords and removing parts of their brains.
The records describe experiments in which cats’ spinal cords are completely severed using tiny scissors. In one set of tests involving 24 cats, half will be kept alive for six weeks after their spinal cords are cut before undergoing terminal experiments. The records also describe treadmill equipment used to train and evaluate cats’ movement.
These cats face muscle wasting and substantial weight loss. The application acknowledges that cats can lose more than 15 percent of their body weight in the first month after their spinal cords are cut and identifies self-mutilation and urinary and skin infections as possible complications. Cats who chew their own hindlegs or tails are killed.
The terminal procedures include opening the spine, implanting electrodes, electrical stimulation, and decerebration: removing skull bone, cutting through the brainstem, and removing the brain tissue above the cut. The cats will be killed approximately 16 to 20 hours after the terminal surgery begins.
Another set of experiments calls for 12 cats and a cooling device attached to the exposed spinal cord. Experimenters plan to record spinal nerve activity with electrodes before, during, and after cooling the cord, then deliver serotonin-mimicking drugs to the lower spinal cord through a small catheter and repeat the tests.
Temple University’s cat cruelty extends beyond this laboratory. WCW previously exposed NIH-funded heart failure experiments at the same university involving 25 kittens just eight to ten weeks old. Experimenters planned to open their chests, place bands around their aortas to restrict blood flow, and ultimately kill them by removing their hearts. NIH extended that project within days of its public phase-out assurances.
WCW has also exposed new NIH funding under RFK for a University of Wisconsin-Madison colony breeding kittens with glaucoma and a University of Minnesota laboratory planning to drill kittens’ skulls, induce strokes, and kill them.
WCW is turning these investigations into action in Congress. We secured language in spending bills to cut dog and cat lab funding and backed Farm Bill provisions to defund maximum pain experiments on dogs and cats. We also supported the PUPPS and COMPACT Acts, which would ban breeding dogs for experiments, cut NIH and other HHS funding for dog and cat testing, and promote retirement to loving homes.
The receipts are clear. NIH keeps funding the cruelty it promised to phase out. WCW is leading the charge to cut the funding and end the abuse.
