We've been featuring some cats with jobs on this blog, like therapy cats, ships cats and barn cats, but did you ever hear of a spy cat?
In the 1960's the CIA worked on a project called Acoustic Kitty with the goal of creating a cat spy. Project acoustic kitty involved trying to create cyborg cats that could record sound. According to the Smithsonian magazine, the CIA was targeting an Asian head of state who had cats wandering around during his meetings with his advisors. It was thought that no one would notice another cat wandering through, so if they could implant a cat with a microphone, they could record some interesting intelligence without arousing suspicion.
Another Smithsonian article says that the acoustic kitty project took 5 years. They didn't want the cat to have any tell tale scars or equipment sticking out, so in creating the cyborg cat, they had to create a recording device small enough to implant into the base of a cat's skull, and find a suitable place to put the microphone. They settled on the ear canal for the microphone and then wove an antenna through the cat's long fur wll the way to the tail. The Smithsonian even says there was a cluster of instruments implanted in it's rib cage. They say they could direct the cat's movements with ultrasonic sounds. All together the surgery and training brought the price tag for acoustic kitty to $20 million before they were ready for testing the first cat spy.
There seems to be some doubt as to how that first test went. This Smithsonian article says that acoustic kitty didn't even make it to the test and was hit by a taxi on it's first outing. However according to this Smithsonian article, Robert Wallace, who headed the CIA's Office of Technical Services in the 1990s disputes that story and says that the cat was not hit by a taxi, but doesn't seem to elaborate more on what did happen to the cat spy.
Whether acoustic kitty survived his first outing or lived to record another day, it seems that by 1967 the CIA had scrapped the project. Both articles site a CIA memo entitled “Views on Trained Cats” where the CIA acknowledged that “the program would not lend itself in a practical sense to our highly specialized needs.”
Perhaps cats are better suited to counter intelligence, because besides acoustic kitty, there were 2 cats in the 1960s who actually helped to foil an espionage plot! According to this article in the Glasgow Herald, 2 cats in the Dutch Embassy in Moscow woke from naps and started scratching at the wall. Embassador Henri Helb suspected they had heard a sound not audible to the human ear, and sure enough 30 microphones were found in the wall. Now aware that the Russians were listening in, the embassy staff actually made use of the microphones to stragetically lodge complaints, which seem to have given the desired results. The article mentions a time when Mrs. Helb complained of a delay in delivering her tulip bulbs, which were stuck in customs, and the bulbs were then delivered within 24 hours!
What do you think? Do you know any cats that would make good spies?
Cover photo by Valérie Ungerer on Unsplash
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