The Tale of Two Lab Kittens: The One We Saved, the One We Didn’t, and Why It’s Historic

This is a tale of two cats, Petite and Sif. As kittens, they were sold by the same “kitten mill” to the United States government to be abused then killed in painful taxpayer-funded experiments. 

Petite (a.k.a. government ID #15KEY5) was sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Kitten Slaughterhouse.” For Sif (a.k.a. government ID #17LFC4), the destination was the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

White Coat Waste Project (WCWP) recently shut down Sif’s home. Two years prior, we gave Petite’s lab the same treatment. However, the two kittens’ stories diverge from there.

The One We Saved

Petite’s story is the pure distillation of something we call “FOIA to freedom.” Our investigators started with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request into Petite’s secret government laboratory. Through that FOIA request, they found out that Petite was sold to USDA’s Kitten Slaughterhouse in 2016 by a company called Liberty Research that supplies animals to government labs. She was just over a year old.

The government noted that she was a “little cat.” So it gave her the name Lil Petite. 

The feds turned Petite into a breeder— an incubator for more lab specimens.

For nearly half a century, the USDA slaughtered and incinerated 3,000 of these healthy and adoptable kittens in toxoplasmosis experiments. The USDA also purchased cat and dog meat from China’s live animal markets and fed it to Petite’s kittens in cannibalism experiments. The USDA’s decades-long kitten experimentation cost over $22 million taxpayer dollars.

Think about that for a minute: dog and cat meat markets abroad. Taxpayer-funded animal experimentation at home.

WCWP exposed the USDA’s receipts to the international media. Then we united 3 million liberty lovers and animal lovers and rallied “Waste Warriors” in Congress to close Petite’s lab and retire the survivors. From FOIA to freedom, it took about a year to defund and defeat one of the largest cat labs in the entire federal government. 

The One We Didn’t

A young kitten named Sif was also bred by Liberty Research but sold to a different government lab on May 8, 2018. She, too, was just past her first birthday. 

Sif was bought by the Los Angeles VA Medical Center—one of three taxpayer-funded kitten labs the VA has been operating, alongside labs in Cleveland and Louisville. WCWP discovered Sif’s secretive lab by piecing together data from FOIA requests, government spending records, federal databases, and lawsuits. 

Our investigators later determined from internal VA documents obtained through a FOIA lawsuit that live cats had holes drilled in their skulls at the VA lab. The victims were suffocated, their oxygen cut off as part of ongoing sleep experiments. Electrodes were implanted into their brains. Some had electrodes implanted in their tongues and chins, as well, and had “head caps” cemented to their fractured skulls. Once deemed no longer useful, blood was drained from their bodies. Then their brains were removed for dissection. 

The grants funding the VA’s cat experiments, in total, have cost taxpayers over $10 million, according to records obtained by WCWP.

The VA doesn’t want you to know the details of what they did to Sif. WCWP had to sue them to get her records.

The last record of Sif’s life is dated January 2020. It’s of Sif’s weight. She was 3.44 kilograms—about 7.5 pounds. 

Just a wee cat, too, like Petite. 

In March 2021, a brave whistleblower came forward and exposed how the VA had killed Sif and every other kitten. But Sif’s death was a bittersweet coda to another great victory.

Why It’s Historic

Just days after our lawsuit, and following advocacy from the world-famous Kitten Lady, CBS News confirmed that WCWP’s investigation had ended all cat experiments at the Los Angeles VA. One down, two to go. And with the closure of USDA’s Kitten Slaughterhouse, the VA now operates the U.S. government’s last major kitten labs. 

Cleveland and Louisville are ground zero in WCWP’s historic campaign to end all painful cat experiments across the entire federal government. That’s why dozens of Democrats and Republicans in Congress are reaching across party lines to pass the CATS Act. 

Petite now lives in a loving home, probably a lot like yours. Her favorite activities include snuggling, head bonks, and making biscuits. She’s gone from lab cat to lap cat.

I know how much Petite loves her new life because I actually adopted her. Petite and Delilah, another Kitten Slaughterhouse survivor, live with me and my partner. So this tale of two cats is very personal to me. But it’s personal for you too. The government is still using your money to abuse kittens.

When the money stops, the killing stops. With your help, we’ll close this shameful chapter and dump wasteful government cat experiments into the litter box of history.