The CIA Tried To Turn A Cat Into A Spy

I was watching a documentary about Cold War intelligence projects when they mentioned something that sounded so ridiculous I thought they were joking.

The CIA spent millions trying to make a spy cat.

Not a joke.

Not a cartoon.

An actual cat.

The project was called Acoustic Kitty.

During the Cold War, intelligence agencies were desperate to find new ways to collect information without being noticed. The idea behind this project was to turn a cat into a mobile listening device that could walk around places humans couldn't easily access.

The plan was to surgically implant a microphone inside the cat's ear, place a small transmitter near the base of its skull, and use the animal to secretly record conversations.

The CIA reportedly spent years developing the technology because cats were seen as animals people would naturally ignore.

The first major field test was supposed to happen near a Soviet diplomatic location in Washington, D.C.

The cat was released.

Then almost immediately...

it was hit by a taxi.

The mission was basically over before it started.

The project was eventually abandoned, and years later documents revealed it existed.

The strangest part isn't even that they tried it.

It's that someone somewhere had to approve the funding, build the equipment, train the cat, and believe this was actually worth pursuing.

People joke about governments doing ridiculous things behind closed doors.

But sometimes the truth is already stranger than the joke.

Because somewhere in a CIA archive is proof that there was once a serious plan to use a cat as a spy.