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Picture purrfect: Cats saved from gov't 'kitten slaughterhouse' visit Capitol
"I'm so glad you're freed," Sen. Jeff Merkley told the pair of rescue felines.
Two lawmakers are the cat's meow on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D.-Ore, and Rep. Brian Mast, R.-Fla., who were instrumental in ending the Department of Agriculture's so-called "kitten slaughterhouse," were visited on Thursday by two cats who were spared when the government program was shut down earlier this year.
"I’m so glad you're freed," Merkley said in his Senate office while holding survivor Delilah, who was brought to the Capitol along with another cat named Petite by the organization White Coat Waste Project.
The group is a non-profit that combats wasteful government spending on animal testing, and issued a report earlier this year showing U.S Department of Agriculture's lab in Maryland had been performing gruesome and fatal testing on cats.
Merkley told NBC News that he'd been unaware of the USDA's decades-old program until advocates presented the information to him.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/cats-saved-gov-t-kitten-slaughterhouse-visit-capitol-purr-thank-n1034811
Two lawmakers are the cat's meow on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D.-Ore, and Rep. Brian Mast, R.-Fla., who were instrumental in ending the Department of Agriculture's so-called "kitten slaughterhouse," were visited on Thursday by two cats who were spared when the government program was shut down earlier this year.
"I’m so glad you're freed," Merkley said in his Senate office while holding survivor Delilah, who was brought to the Capitol along with another cat named Petite by the organization White Coat Waste Project.
The group is a non-profit that combats wasteful government spending on animal testing, and issued a report earlier this year showing U.S Department of Agriculture's lab in Maryland had been performing gruesome and fatal testing on cats.
Merkley told NBC News that he'd been unaware of the USDA's decades-old program until advocates presented the information to him.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/cats-saved-gov-t-kitten-slaughterhouse-visit-capitol-purr-thank-n1034811
9 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
from a cat owner and cat lover. Well done!
Damn, now I'm tearing up! 
Thank heavens for politicos who actually feel compassion. If only we could weed out those who don't purely on that quality.
And Mast, who apparently has some human qualities.
Yay kitties!
I'm a supporter and so happy to see the good they're doing!