Operation Acoustic Kitty

The 1960s CIA project that wired a cat for sound

Overview

Project Acoustic Kitty surgically implanted a microphone and antenna in a cat during the 1960s, aiming to eavesdrop on conversations near specific targets. Declassified memos released in 2001 and later participant accounts describe the effort as unworkable, and one account holds that the first test cat was lost to a taxi before cancellation. Costing millions before it ended, the project endures as shorthand for inventive but impractical Cold War gadgetry and as evidence of how far agencies would chase technical collection.