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  • 💵 The CIA spent $20M to do WHAT?!

💵 The CIA spent $20M to do WHAT?!

Just wait until you hear about "Acoustic Kitty"...

Author

Chris Equale
October 16, 2025

The CIA spent $20M to turn what into spies?!

In the 1960s, amid the fervor of Cold War espionage, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency embarked on an audacious and controversial project to use animals as covert surveillance tools. Among various animal‑espionage ideas, one of the most infamous was Operation Acoustic Kitty (sometimes called Project Acoustic Kitty), in which the CIA attempted to turn domestic cats into mobile listening devices.

The basic idea behind Acoustic Kitty was that a cat could roam freely and inconspicuously around sensitive locations—such as near Soviet embassies or diplomatic compounds—and eavesdrop on conversations by means of implanted electronics. The agency’s scientists and veterinarians implanted a microphone in the cat’s ear canal, embedded a tiny radio transmitter at the base of its skull, and used a fine wire or antenna concealed along the cat’s tail or fur to relay audio signals. They also attempted to train the cat to approach particular locations or targets, despite the inherent behavioral unpredictability of feline subjects.

Over the span of roughly five years, the CIA is believed to have spent on the order of US $20 million (in 1960s dollars) developing and attempting to operationalize Acoustic Kitty. The high cost stemmed from the technical challenges: miniaturizing reliable electronics (microphones, transmitters, power sources) to fit within or on a cat without obvious bulk, surgical procedures, repeated trials and failures, and the training/regulation of cat behavior.

The plot’s most famous (and tragic) moment came during the first field test. The CIA operatives released a cat near a park bench outside a Soviet diplomatic site in Washington, D.C., intending for it to eavesdrop on two men. But almost immediately after the cat was released, it wandered into the street and was struck by a taxi (and killed). Some accounts suggest that the CIA recovered the cat’s remains and equipment discreetly to avoid revealing the project publicly. Other sources dispute that version, and former CIA officials later suggested alternative explanations (e.g. the cat may have survived).

Following that debacle, the CIA conducted further tests but gradually concluded the operation was not feasible. A heavily redacted CIA memo declassified under the Freedom of Information Act, titled “Views on Trained Cats,” acknowledged that while “cats can indeed be trained to move short distances,” the “environmental and security factors in using this technique in a real foreign situation force us to conclude that … it would not be practical.” By 1967, the project was officially canceled.

In retrospect, Project Acoustic Kitty remains one of the most peculiar episodes in Cold War intelligence history. It illustrates both the ambition and folly of trying to impose tight control over animals for espionage—and the limits of technology of that era. While the cat‑spy idea failed spectacularly, it has become a cautionary tale in the annals of intelligence: technological audacity without behavioral realism can lead to huge expenditures and embarrassing failures.

Today, declassified documents and retrospective accounts allow historians and the public to piece together what was attempted.

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