By Marlene Lenthang For Dailymail.com
Published: 15:39 GMT, 19 March 2019 | Updated: 15:40 GMT, 19 March 2019
View
comments
Hundreds of dead dogs and cats from Asia were purchased by the U.S. government then fed to healthy lab cats in a series of disturbing experiments, according to a breaking watchdog report.
The experiments with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's lab in Maryland are the center of a shocking report by the White Coat Waste Project, a nonprofit against wasteful spending on animal testing, released on Tuesday.
The experiments included feeding dog remains to cats and injecting cat remains into mice and took place at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service's Animal Parasitic Disease Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland.
The agency claimed that the tests - conducted from 2003 through 2015 - were aimed at studying different forms of a parasite called toxoplasmosis, one of the leading causes food borne illness-related death in the U.S.
The U.S. government fed dead dogs and cats purchased in Asia and South America to healthy lab cats in disturbing experiments to study a parasite called toxoplasmosis according to watchdog report. A feline purchased by the facility where the tests took place pictured above in an undated photo
The tests took place from 2003 to 2015 at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service's