The CIA spent millions training cats to be spies.

U.S. History

I f you've ever had a stealthy feline sneak up on you, you might have had the same idea the CIA once did: that cats would make good spies. Indeed, the intelligence agency spent millions of dollars on a program to that end in the 1960s. But as any cat owner can tell you, it probably shouldn't have bothered: However sneaky and/or intelligent cats might be, they know no masters but themselves. Operation Acoustic Kitty was essentially a disaster, with only one subject making it into the field before the ill-advised — and, quite frankly, cruel — program was scrapped. The idea was to create a sort of cyborg cat by implanting a microphone in the animal's ear, a radio transmitter at the base of its skull, and an antenna in its fur — "a monstrosity," in the words of Victor Marchetti, a former CIA employee who went on to write the tell-some book The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence.

On paper, the Acoustic Kitty agent's first test was simple enough: sit near a park bench and capture a conversation between two people on a park bench. Instead, according to most accounts, the unfortunate feline was hit by a taxi and killed. Writing of the operation's failure in a heavily redacted memo, the CIA concluded, "Our final examination of trained cats… convinced us that the program would not lend itself in a practical sense to our highly specialized needs."

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By the Numbers

Year the CIA was established

1947

Pedigreed cat breeds recognized by the Cat Fanciers' Association

Did you know?

The CIA replaced an earlier organization called the OSS.

Prior to the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947, the United States conducted its espionage via a different shadowy organization: the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS. Founded in 1942 to help win World War II, it was partially inspired by the attack on Pearl Harbor — a massive intelligence failure that led the government to rethink its comparatively informal intel-gathering operations. Led by William J. Donovan, who was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to helm the organization, the OSS employed 13,000 individuals at its peak and is credited with making significant wartime contributions during its three years in existence. Donovan is considered a founding father of the CIA, which was established two years after the OSS was phased out. His supporters urged President Harry Truman to put him in charge of the new agency, but the post instead went to Roscoe Hillenkoetter, a retired Navy vice admiral.

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