According to records obtained by WCW through Freedom of Information Act requests, kitten experiments previously conducted at the shuttered USDA facility were transferred into an NIH laboratory in Bethesda, Maryland, where documents show they remain active through at least late 2026.
Since 2013, World Animal News (WAN) has reported on the cruelty and hidden suffering behind animal testing while advocating for humane, modern alternatives. This latest investigation adds to mounting scrutiny over whether agencies are truly following through on promises to reduce animal testing or simply shifting these practices elsewhere.
In 2019, public outrage erupted after WCW exposed a horrific USDA kitten testing program where thousands of cats were bred and subjected to painful experiments before being killed. At the USDA’s Beltsville facility, investigators uncovered disturbing toxoplasmosis parasite experiments that included kittens being fed cat and dog meat obtained from overseas markets.
WCW’s disturbing findings sparked bipartisan backlash and ultimately led to the Trump administration terminating the program. The 28 surviving cats were adopted into loving homes, including Delilah and Petite,two breeder cats adopted by WCW President and Founder Anthony Bellotti.
WCW’s rescues, Delilah and Petite
Many animal advocates believed the heartbreaking chapter had finally come to an end. But newly uncovered records tell a very different story.
Documents reviewed by WCW show that the NIH, in collaboration with the USDA’s controversial cat experimenter, is using kittens and cats in studies where they are fed infected mouse brains, confined, inoculated, and subjected to biological sample collection.
Internal records also acknowledge serious health risks to the animals, including warnings that some cats could develop pneumonia and die suddenly before intervention would even be possible. Additional records show that young kittens continued to be purchased from laboratory animal suppliers in recent years.
Perhaps most disturbing are records indicating efforts to erase traces of the animals’ laboratory histories after studies concluded.
One document uncovered by WCW stated that microchips would be permanently reassigned if cats were adopted, “ensuring no record” that the cats had participated in laboratory testing.
The language has raised new concerns among advocates who say the public deserves full transparency about what animals endure inside taxpayer-funded laboratories.
WAN has been highlighting WCW’s investigations for years and has exposed the NIH’s continued funding of cruel dog and cat experiments despite repeated public commitments last year to phase out animal testing.
“Taxpayers were told the USDA’s kitten cruelty had ended, but White Coat Waste has now exposed that Dr. Anthony Fauci quietly insourced these controversial experiments into NIH’s own labs after our campaign prompted the closure of the USDA’s kitten slaughterhouse,” Anthony Bellotti, founder and president of WCW, told WAN.
“Taxpayers do not want their hard-earned money wasted on barbaric cat experiments. WCW’s campaigns have already ended cat testing by the USDA, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Department of Defense, yet the NIH has poured more than $142 million of new taxpayer funding into dog and cat laboratories since early 2025. We’re pushing Congress to finally defund the NIH’s wasteful pet abuse programs and retire the survivors like the cats I adopted from the USDA’s kitten cannibalism lab WCW shut down. Stop the money. Stop the madness,” stated Bellotti.
Take Action! Tell Congress and federal officials to stop funding cruel experiments on cats and kittens with your taxpayer dollars, HERE!
