Central Intelligence Agency operatives spent roughly twenty million dollars in the 1960s surgically implanting a microphone, a radio transmitter, and an antenna into a cat to spy on Soviet officials.

A closer look

Central Intelligence Agency operatives spent roughly twenty million dollars in the 1960s surgically implanting a microphone, a radio transmitter, and an antenna into a cat to spy on Soviet officials. Project Acoustic Kitty was supposed to revolutionize Cold War espionage by turning a standard feline into a furry, undetectable listening device. During its very first official field test outside a Soviet compound in Washington, D.C., the highly trained cyborg cat was immediately hit by a taxi and killed before it could record a single syllable of communist intelligence. Decades of intensive research, funding, and top-secret veterinary surgeries were completely vaporized in three seconds by standard city traffic, reminding us that no amount of advanced government funding can ever force a cat to safely look both ways before crossing the street