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Government scientists feed dead cats and dogs to lab cats in experiments

Stevicus

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Cat cannibalism: Report discloses 'questionable' gov't animal experiments

U.S. government scientists bought hundreds of dogs and cats from "Asian meat markets" and conducted experiments that included feeding their remains to healthy lab cats for needless research, according to a disturbing watchdog report being released Tuesday.

Other experiments at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's lab in Maryland included feeding dog remains to cats and injecting cat remains into mice, the report by the White Coat Waste Project found. The group is a non-profit that combats wasteful government spending on animal testing.

"It's crazy," Jim Keen, a former USDA scientist, told NBC News, which obtained a copy of the report. "Cannibal cats, cats eating dogs — I don't see the logic."
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Well, I have to agree that does seem pretty crazy.

The experiments — some of which the agency said in scientific reports were aimed at studying different forms of a parasite that causes the food-borne illness toxoplasmosis — are believed to have been conducted between 2003 and 2015. The animals that were euthanized to be used as lab food included over 400 dogs from Colombia, Brazil and Vietnam and over 100 cats from China and Ethiopia.
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However, according to Keen, while the experiments helped to some degree, they haven't had any breakthroughs in 20 years:

Keen, who left the USDA after blowing the whistle on mistreatmentof livestock in Nebraska in 2015, said the Maryland experiments have helped combat toxoplasmosis, but that scientists there haven't had any major breakthroughs in about 20 years. He and WCW vice president of advocacy and public policy Justin Goodman contend that scientists can continue their work with the samples they already have, and don't need to keep infecting and killing kittens.

"They just don't need to do it anymore; it's scientifically unnecessary," Goodman said.
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Keen was also at a loss to explain the scientific purpose of the "cannibal" experiments. The USDA is supposed to protect the food supply, but cats and dogs aren't part of the food chain in the United States.

"It's totally unrelated to the food safety mission," Keen said. "We shouldn't be paying for that as taxpayers."
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PruePhillip

Well-Known Member
Now, here is what you do.
Take a leaf out of the protest about using dead babies in car crashes.

Here protestors stopped engineers putting dead babies in crash cars
to test air bags. So the US auto industry did these tests in Germany.
Protestors followed them and banned the practice.
So the auto industry just set air bags at some default setting and saw
how many babies were killed by them. Then they could adjust these
air bags and see how many more were killed. So the campaign to
stop using dead babies was won - activists didn't have to look any
further than that.
 
Jumi

Jumi

Well-Known Member
PruePhillip said:
Now, here is what you do.
Take a leaf out of the protest about using dead babies in car crashes.

Here protestors stopped engineers putting dead babies in crash cars
to test air bags. So the US auto industry did these tests in Germany.
Protestors followed them and banned the practice.
So the auto industry just set air bags at some default setting and saw
how many babies were killed by them. Then they could adjust these
air bags and see how many more were killed. So the campaign to
stop using dead babies was won - activists didn't have to look any
further than that.
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Any sources for that?
 
Twilight Hue

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Jumi said:
Any sources for that?
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Yeah I'd like to see sources too.

I've never heard of using dead babies in crash studies. Sounds pretty far-fetched although I do know bodies do get donated for science but that's usually for medical fields, not exactly for automotive engineering purposes.
 
Stevicus

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
PruePhillip said:
Now, here is what you do.
Take a leaf out of the protest about using dead babies in car crashes.

Here protestors stopped engineers putting dead babies in crash cars
to test air bags. So the US auto industry did these tests in Germany.
Protestors followed them and banned the practice.
So the auto industry just set air bags at some default setting and saw
how many babies were killed by them. Then they could adjust these
air bags and see how many more were killed. So the campaign to
stop using dead babies was won - activists didn't have to look any
further than that.
Click to expand...

They use crash test dummies of various sizes. (Crash test dummy - Wikipedia)

1024px-Hybridlll.jpg


The article mentioned that human cadavers were used up until the 1950s, including child cadavers, but that there were moral, ethical, and legal considerations, in addition to having to deal with public opinion.
 
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PruePhillip

Well-Known Member
Jumi said:
Any sources for that?
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This was pre-Internet stuff.
No.
I could find it, but here's the problem - the people who make web pages are often
the people who have liberal views on things.
Proof - we in Australia had an issue with our PM saying that if reports of 'refugees'
throwing their babies overboard is true then we don't want such people in our
country. Huge uproar.
There was a Labor/Greens' Senate inquiry. It showed that not only were these
'refugees' throwing their kids into the oceans but they were attacking Aust naval
personnel as well.
12,500 web sites reported the PM's 'racist' comments - NONE mentioned the
outcome of the Senate inquiry.
 
Stevicus

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Just saw this in the headlines: USDA ceases experiments on kittens for food safety research at Maryland laboratory

The United States Department of Agriculture has announced it will end all experiments on kittens at its Maryland laboratory after a bipartisan bill filed last month described the practice as "taxpayer-funded kitten slaughter."

The kittens were being used for toxoplasmosis research, which will now be redirected, according to a statement from the USDA. Toxoplasmosis "considered to be a leading cause of death attributed to foodborne illness in the U.S," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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usda-kittens-02-gty-jc-190402_hpEmbed_3x2_992.jpg


Politicians love kittens. Whoda thunk it?
 
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