President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, testified before the Senate that the Department of Defense was spending tens of millions of dollars on tests that involved sticking “marbles in the rear ends of cats.”
Hegseth brought up the cruel and wasteful animal research during his testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense on Wednesday.
The exchange began as Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin grilled Hegseth about his administration ending many wasteful research grants.
“Give me an example of a ‘boondoggle’ in medical research and defense health,” Sen. Durbin said, likely unprepared for the response.
“I mean, we’re talking about some stuff I shouldn’t say in public, you know, marbles in the rear ends of cats, tens of millions of dollars,” Hegseth said while pantomiming inserting a marble in a cat’s rectum. “Things that don’t have a connection to what you’re talking about.”
.@SenatorDurbin: “Give me an example of a ‘boondoggle’ in medical research and defense health.”
@SecDef Hegseth: “We’re talking about some stuff I shouldn’t say in public. You know, marbles in the rear ends of cats. Tens of millions of dollars.” pic.twitter.com/qgAyU3wlvH
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 11, 2025
“Is this like three hundred and fifty year old Social Security check that the president told us about?” the senator shot back.
Hegseth replied, “I respect completely the issue that you’re speaking with, and this department couldn’t be more sympathetic to that and ensure that it’s funded. But the Defense Department has been a place where organizations, entities, and companies know they can get money almost unchecked to whether or not it actually applies to things that happen on the battlefield.”
Sen. Rand Paul thanked Hegseth for highlighting the spending that he worked with White Coat Waste, an organization dedicated to ending taxpayer-funded animal testing, to expose.
Thank you to @SecDef for highlighting the wasteful spending I exposed in last year’s Festivus Report. This type of taxpayer-funded “research” is not only wasteful—it’s inhumane. Grateful to our friends at @WhiteCoatWaste for continuing to bring this to light. https://t.co/W5N3IZPqG6 pic.twitter.com/Q13i31pkpw
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) June 12, 2025
Through Freedom of Information Act requests, WCW uncovered a $10 million DoD contract funded through the Navy’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for grotesque experiments on cats at the University of Pittsburgh. These sick tests involved inserting marbles and balloons into the rectums of cats and subjecting them to electroshock treatments to study constipation and erectile dysfunction.
The contract was originally set to expire in May 2025, but had been quietly extended to 2027 — which WCW quickly caught.
Soon, the organization’s investigation caught the attention of Loomer, an outspoken animal lover who has rescued dogs from China.
In exclusive segments on her show Loomer Unleashed with WCW Vice President Justin Goodman, she highlighted the organization’s FOIA discoveries, describing the tests as “horrifically disturbing” and calling for immediate action from the DoD.
President @realDonaldTrump’s own Department of Defense just RENEWED a $10 million contract to shove marbles into cats’ rectums and electroshock them for constipation research.
How are experiments like these STILL happening under the Trump administration and why are they being… pic.twitter.com/1UcF2bebMO
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) May 8, 2025
Less than two weeks later, the Navy announced the end of all testing on dogs and cats.
FDA’s Move to Phase Out Animal Testing Hailed as Victory for White Coat Waste Project
In a statement provided to The Gateway Pundit at the time, White Coat Waste President Anthony Bellotti said:
“We’re thrilled that 10 days after the Trump DOD canceled cruel cat tests exposed by White Coat Waste, the U.S. Navy is now cutting all wasteful experiments on dogs and cats following our investigations and campaign.
Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for pet abuse in Navy-funded labs, and now, thanks to a White Coat Waste campaign, including powerful advocacy from Elon Musk, Laura Loomer, Rep. Nancy Mace, military veterans, and others, they won’t have to.
We applaud Secretary Phelan, Secretary Hegseth, and President Trump for first slashing the US government’s largest dog lab and now sending the Pentagon’s cat and dog abuse to the litterbox of history. Defunding dog and cat labs has been our top priority for Trump 47.
The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!”
The Trump-haters at PETA attempted to take credit for WCW’s work, but were quickly called out.
The text on the thumbnail for your story is not accurate @alexandrankoch. The image says “Navy halts dog and cat experiments after PETA writes Hegseth.”
The animal testing experiments funded by DOD and the Navy were uncovered by @WhiteCoatWaste and the story was exclusively… https://t.co/mhCCGbHiTp pic.twitter.com/kSjEKj7lsK
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) May 31, 2025
This isn’t the first win from White Coat Waste under the Trump administration.
In April, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans to phase out animal testing requirements, starting with monoclonal antibodies and expanding to other drugs after a long pressure campaign from WCW. The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also pledged to eliminate animal testing, reinstating a plan originally introduced during President Trump’s first term.
In May, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins also confirmed the department will end at least some of its primate testing before the 2026 deadline set by Congress. Since 2016, WCW had worked to expose how the VA was giving puppies heart attacks, injecting monkeys with angel dust, crippling kittens, drilling into cat’s skulls, and much more.
WCW is the only animal advocacy organization to shut down any government primate lab in nearly a decade, any government dog testing labs in almost 20 years, and any government cat lab in the last 40 years.
The post Hegseth Says DOD Was Spending Tens of Millions Sticking Marbles Inside the Rear Ends of Cats During Jaw-Dropping Senate Testimony (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.