CIA Operation Acoustic Kitty

  • sramder@lemmy.worldEnglish
    50·
    1 month ago

    The only one (of 15) to survive the procedure escaped the lab and was promptly hit by a car.

    • SteveTech@programming.devEnglish
      91·
      1 month ago

      The CIA has in the past said both this, and also that cat wasn’t hit by a car and lived a normal life afterwards. The latter was more recent, so maybe they published misinformation earlier to make it seem like they stopped using cats, or maybe they’re just trying to cover up animal crewelty?

      Also I don’t believe there was 15, maybe you’ve confused it with the 14 french space cats?

      • sramder@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 month ago

        They’re spies, so lying is like 90% of what they do ;-)

        I tend to believe the whole project was an ill conceived failure and someone within CIA made up hit-by-a-car story to avoid a lengthy explanation.

        Radio transmitter in a cat sounds plausible in 2011 but it would have been a much trickier proposition in 1960. Certainly not impossible but the part I always come back to is the power supply. You either need lots of batteries or a way to activate it externally without a lot of drain before you do.

        Covering up animal cruelty. I wouldn’t be surprised if they incinerated the poor things just to make sure there was no chance of the research getting out :-(

        I absolutely made that number up 😅 I’ve got a book at home that’s more coffee table curiosity than serious reference material that had some details of the project. I recall that there were numerous failures but couldn’t remember how many, but 14 failures plus one viable was what my brain offered… so I bet you’re right about french space cats!