A shocking new investigation by the watchdog group White Coat Waste (WCW) has revealed that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) continues to fund disturbing and painful experiments on cats at the University of Missouri-Columbia (UMC), despite public claims that the agency is “working tirelessly” to phase out testing on pets.

Newly obtained state and federal records show that UMC currently holds active NIH funding to experiment on 91 cats, backed by $528,052 in taxpayer dollars through April 2026. The project deliberately inflicts spinal cord injuries on these animals before subjecting them to skull surgeries, forced ventilation, and repeated physical stimulation designed to provoke distress. These are sentient beings forced to endure extreme pain and invasive procedures, ultimately losing their lives, all funded by the public despite mounting opposition.

Even more troubling, records obtained by WCW reveal that in recent years UMC maintained a colony of cats used as blood donors, including at least 15 homeless cats acquired from Jefferson City, MO’s public animal shelter. The documents list cats’ microchip numbers, meaning that the animals were probably pets who ended up at the shelter after being lost or surrendered by their guardians. These vulnerable animals, who should have been given a second chance at finding loving homes, were instead placed in laboratory cages and forced to be used as blood banks.

The donor cats were reportedly at risk of anemia and dangerously low blood levels as a result of repeated blood draws. After spending up to two years confined in the lab, they could be killed if deemed “medically necessary,” rather than adopted out. Missouri does not prohibit shelters from surrendering animals to laboratories in a practice known as pound seizure, leaving abandoned pets at risk of ending up in experiments.

In a separate NIH-funded project at UMC, 32 cats were intentionally bred to suffer from polycystic kidney disease, a painful condition that slowly destroys the kidneys. Funded with $214,570 in taxpayer dollars, young kittens were placed on experimental diets, repeatedly scanned, and subjected to invasive sample collections, causing infections, inflammation, and severe distress. When the study ended, many were killed by overdose and dissected.

These revelations are not isolated. Previous WCW investigations uncovered additional NIH-funded experiments at UMC in which dogs were infected with disease by having tick-filled containers glued to their skin and were bred to suffer from fatal genetic disorders.

While NIH Deputy Director Nicole Kleinstreuer has described testing on dogs and cats as “unconscionable” and suggested the agency is working to reduce the testing, funding continues to flow to laboratories conducting painful and lethal studies on pets.

“White Coat Waste’s new investigation exposes that the taxpayer-funded abuse of cats in laboratories—including lost and abandoned pets—is alive and well.  Documents obtained through open records requests detail how the University of Missouri is wasting state and federal taxpayer dollars to cripple cats by severing their spinal cords and drain blood from lost and abandoned pets that have been round up from a local animal shelter,” Anthony Bellotti, President and Founder of White Coat Waste, told WAN. “Taxpayers should not be forced to bankroll the barbaric abuse of pets in wasteful experiments. It’s time to cut the funding and close state and federal loopholes that allow lost pets to be tortured with taxpayer dollars. The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness.”

In 2024, WAN broke an exclusive on WCW’s investigation revealing the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) was spending $1 million on painful dog experiments. Following WAN’s coverage, Congress enacted a bipartisan amendment to the 2026 Defense budget cutting funding for the DOD’s painful dog and cat testing, underscoring the power of investigative transparency and public pressure.

Advocates are now calling on lawmakers to pass the Preventing Animal Abuse and Waste (PAAW) Act to help stop the NIH from funding cruel experiments on dogs and cats in the U.S. 

Sign White Coat Waste’s petition HERE!