This article suggests that scientists are adopting pets off of Craigslist and experimenting on them. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laboratory_animal

This article suggests that scientists are adopting pets off of Craigslist and experimenting on them. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laboratory_animal_sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laboratory_animal_sources, labs must purchase from USDA-licensed animal dealers. 4117 of these dealers breed their own animals, and only 7 are licensed to acquire animals through other means. According to the Humane Society, which also has an interest in ending this practice, the latter "round up thousands of dogs and cats each year and sell them to research facilities," which is a pretty small proportion of the "80 million cats and 54 million dogs" this article claims are used in scientific research every year. To be clear, I don't believe it's right to divert animals raised as pets to scientific research, and I think the remaining class B dealers should be shut down unless there is strong scientific justification for their continued existence. However, as far as the fate of Craigslist cats, this article is pretty heavy on the speculation and light on the details.