This is a blinder of an Act: Kittens in Traumatic Testing Ends Now Act of 2018. It is a follow-up to a recent story I recited in an earlier post based upon a letter Congressman Mike Bishop wrote to the US Department of Agriculture. In essence Congressman’s letter asks for clarification about the harvesting of Toxoplasma oocysts from kittens which were subsequently killed in large numbers as a very early age. The whole saga sounds completely immoral and distressing. Congressman Bishop, I’m sure, felt the same way.

Kittens in Traumatic Testing Ends Now Act of 2018 proposed by Congressman Bishop. Nice work!

It seems that moving forward the Republican senator has introduced a Bill to stop the US Department of agriculture from using kittens in painful experiments.

The legislation is very interestingly titled as the Kittens in Traumatic Testing Ends Now Act Of 2018 (sounds like a tongue in cheek name) or more succinctly the Kitten Act. It appears that the Act’s sole purpose is to stop the Department of Agriculture from causing pain and distress to kittens in arguably unnecessary experiments. The bill is co-sponsored by Congressman Jimmy Panetta of California.

The Congressman said that the USDA must stop killing kittens and of course he is right. Bishop hopes to work with the agency in trying to meet that goal. The USDA has thus far not responded to the proposed legislation but they appear to have responded to his letter.

Apparently, a USDA’s Agricultural Research Service spokesperson told CNN that far less kittens were used in the experiments than has been stated in online media and that the use of cats was essential to the research.

The research arm of the USDA say that every effort is utilized to minimize the number of cats employed to produce the Toxoplasma oocysts. The research came to light through the work of the White Coat Waste Project, a watchdog group which provided Congressman Bishop with the documentation highlighting the research. Justin Goodman of the White Coat Waste Project is obviously delighted with the speedy work of Congressman Bishop and more so with the Bill proposed by him and seconded by Panetta.

P.S. Congressman Bishop’s letter to the USDA and this proposed Bill are getting an awful lot of online press attention. This is wonderful news in respect of minimizing and perhaps hopefully one day eliminating laboratory research using domestic cat and kittens. There are many people who find it unnecessary and cruel because there are alternative methods of testing and research. I personally really think it is time to stop animal testing in ways which hurts and kills the animals. It’s all done for human benefit. Why are they less important than humans? What right have we to do this to animals?