A recent investigation has uncovered a taxpayer-funded pipeline supplying cats to universities for virus experiments, including COVID-19 research.
What happened
Records obtained by the watchdog group White Coat Waste Project reveal that a little-known lab animal dealer, Clinvet, has been providing cats to major universities, such as Cornell and Colorado State, for experiments funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Cats supplied by Clinvet were used in COVID-19 and feline immunodeficiency virus studies, with some experiments involving the infection and killing of healthy animals. At Cornell University, researchers used cats donated by Clinvet to study COVID-19, with nearly $1.6 million in funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Additionally, Colorado State University received 45 cats from Clinvet in May 2026, which were used in experiments involving the surgical removal of fetuses from pregnant cats and the killing of animals for diagnostic assays. The university's breeding colony is authorized to hold up to 120 cats for up to three years.
The investigation also found that cats were sold or transferred to other institutions, including Oklahoma State University and Redbeast Enterprises, with at least $22,960 collected by Colorado State University between 2021 and 2023.
