Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has released another edition of his annual Festivus Report, aimed at exposing the federal government’s misuse of taxpayer dollars.
This year’s report sheds light on a particularly disturbing aspect of government spending: barbaric experiments on animals, including cats, conducted with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (DOD).
The report details $1.5 million in taxpayer funds used for cruel experiments at the University of Pittsburgh, funded through an NIH grant. These experiments involve torturous treatment of young kittens, ostensibly to study motion sickness.
The report describes horrifying procedures, including:
- Electroshock therapy causing uncontrollable vomiting.
- Spinning kittens on hydraulic tables to induce severe motion sickness.
- Drilling holes in their skulls and removing parts of their brains, leaving the animals alive but cognitively impaired.
The experiments, conducted on kittens as young as four months old, are brutal. The kittens are first trained to endure long periods of restraint, tied down for hours over several weeks to prepare them for the procedures.
Once “trained,” they are strapped to hydraulic tables that spin them rapidly to induce extreme disorientation. If the spinning doesn’t make them vomit, researchers inject copper sulfate into their stomachs to guarantee the effect.
In what the report calls “medieval” practices, some kittens have their brains decerebrated—partially or fully removed—while alive, turning them into unresponsive “zombies” to be further tortured.
NIH claims these experiments aim to understand motion sickness in animals and its potential implications for human health, such as treating vertigo or studying the effects of space travel.
The Department of Defense, specifically its Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is also implicated in cruel animal testing. Senator Paul’s report highlights nearly $11 million spent on bizarre and inhumane experiments at the University of Pittsburgh.
One experiment involved inserting electrodes into cats’ spinal cords to induce erections, followed by severing their spinal cords to paralyze them. The report notes that researchers subjected the cats to electric shocks for up to 10 minutes before and after severing their spinal cords.
Another grotesque study aimed at addressing constipation involved inserting “condom-balloons” and marbles into cats’ rectums. Electrodes attached to the spinal cords were used to force the cats to expel the marbles. One unfortunate cat endured 11 minutes of shocks to expel just four marbles.
Paul’s report paints a grim picture of unchecked government spending on experiments that appear to lack ethical considerations or tangible benefits. “Nearly $11 million of taxpayer money has been spent on experiments that would be more fitting in a dystopian novel than the real world,” the report states.
The White Coat Waste Project, a nonprofit watchdog organization, has been at the forefront of exposing such wasteful and abusive government-funded animal experiments.
In 2021, the organization revealed that Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases had spent $375,000 on experiments in Tunisia where beagles were locked in cages with parasite-infected sand flies that ate them alive.
The Festivus Report has sparked outrage among animal rights activists and the general public. The detailed descriptions of these experiments, particularly those involving kittens, have prompted renewed calls to end taxpayer funding for cruel animal research.
“This is not just a misuse of taxpayer dollars; it’s a moral failure,” the report emphasizes. “These experiments defy common sense and decency.”
The Festivus Report doesn’t just highlight animal cruelty; it’s part of Senator Paul’s broader effort to expose wasteful government spending.
This year’s report details $482 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse across various federal programs, including funding for questionable projects and bureaucratic inefficiencies.
Paul argues that the funds wasted on these experiments could be better used elsewhere or returned to taxpayers. “If the government can’t be trusted to spend our money responsibly, why should we allow them to take it in the first place?” he asks.
Animal rights groups and watchdog organizations are calling for immediate action to end taxpayer-funded animal experiments. They argue that advancements in technology, such as computer modeling and synthetic biology, offer ethical alternatives to using live animals for research.
Senator Paul’s report serves as a stark reminder of the need for greater accountability in federal spending. The details of these experiments—electrocuting kittens, drilling into their skulls, and forcing cats to “poop marbles”—are shocking enough to galvanize public opinion against such practices.
The White Coat Waste Project and other organizations are urging Congress to pass legislation that would ban the use of taxpayer funds for cruel and unnecessary animal testing.
With growing awareness and public outrage, there is hope that future Festivus Reports will highlight progress rather than continued barbarity.
