WASHINGTONthe United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is breeding kittens, feeding them unhealthy meat, testing their stool after which euthanizing them despite the fact that they're wholesome.
The apply, which has been occurring at USDA's Agriculture Research Service (ARS) facility for many years, was simply uncovered by White Coat Waste Project – a taxpayer watchdog group.
Government paperwork obtained by White Coat Waste Project present a USDA lab in Maryland breeds as much as 100 kittens a yr.
When the kittens flip two months they're fed toxoplasma- contaminated purple meat.
Researchers then acquire their feces for a number of weeks to reap the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis – a sickness that may have an effect on people with compromised immune methods and unborn youngsters contaminated within the womb.
The kittens are then killed and incinerated earlier than they're three months previous.
"This secretive facility is basically a USDA kitten slaughterhouse that is been breeding and killing 1000's of cats for many years at nice expense to Americans and with out their information. This taxpayer- funded waste and abuse belongs within the litter field of historical past," says Justin Goodman, vp of advocacy and public coverage at White Coat Waste Project.
The parasite that causes toxoplasmosis is simply excreted in cat feces, which is why cats are used for the analysis. The kittens are mainly used as incubators to supply the parasite for analysis.
However, the USDA states that "cats fed toxoplasma-infected tissues often don't grow to be sick," which is one of the problems about this analysis that caught the attention of Rep. Michael Bishop (R-MI).
CBN News obtained a replica of a letter he despatched to Agriculture Sec. Sonny Perdue Monday expressing his issues.
"As you may think about, I used to be shocked to listen to that the USDA, the very group got down to implement animal welfare legal guidelines and laws, was treating the life of animals with such contempt," Rep. Bishop writes.
He's requested Sec. Perdue to clarify why the analysis protocol requires the kittens to be killed since they usually do not get sick. He asks why the kittens aren't adopted to taxpayers who paid for the kittens within the first place.
In a press release supplied to CBN News, the USDA Agricultural Research Service stresses the seriousness of toxoplasmosis.
"Unborn youngsters who're contaminated can undergo psychological retardation, seizures, and blindness. A World Health Organization panel estimated that toxoplasmosis has contaminated greater than 10 million individuals globally," the assertion reads.
USDA analysis utilizing cats is answerable for serving to to chop the prevalence of toxoplasmosis by as a lot as half within the United States and Europe, in accordance with the company.
"USDA doesn't search adoptions of these cats as a result of of the danger the cats may pose to their adoptive familes...Our objective is to scale back the unfold of toxoplasmosis. Adopting these cats, infortunately, may undermine that objective," the assertion continues.
Rep. Bishop says that whereas he helps the target of making meals safer and defending each people and animals from infectious illnesses he writes this analysis seems to, "create life to destroy life" and continues, "we should guarantee taxpayer are used successfully, effectively, and humanely."
The present analysis authorization expires later this month, however paperwork present it has been re- accepted for many years.
In reality, the chief researcher, Jitender Dubey, has been doing this kind of analysis at USDA since 1982.
Research on kittens on the USDA is the newest in a sequence of campaigns by White Coat Waste Project to cease tens of millions in taxpayer funding of animal analysis at federal companies.
CBN News has reported on painful analysis on canine at Veterans Affairs that's at present being reviewed with the objective of lowering it.
White Coat Waste Project not too long ago launched a marketing campaign in opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency for spending tens of millions of tax poisoning rabbits and different animals to check the consequences of air pollution.
Rep. Bishop has requested Secretary Perdue to report how a lot the USDA spends on its kitten analysis.