Banner ads attached to flies!
In a more ominous use of animals, apparently the CIA tried a project called “Acoustic Kitty” (CIA PDF) in the ’60s. I kid you not:
One of the CIA’s most bizarre Cold War efforts was Operation Acoustic Kitty. In declassified documents from the CIA’s super-secret Science and Technology Directorate, it was revealed that some Cold-War-era cats were surgically altered to become sophisticated bugging devices. The idea was that the cats would eavesdrop on Soviet conversations from park benches, windowsills and garbage containers. They slit the cat open, put batteries in him, wired him up. The tail was used as an antenna. They tested him and tested him. They found he would walk off the job when he got hungry, so they put another wire in to override that
The CIA drove the cat to a Soviet compound on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C., and let him out of a parked van across the street. The cat ambled into the road, and was struck by a taxi almost immediately. Five years of effort and over $15 million in spending were reduced to roadkill in an instant..
Like the Russian Tank dogs?
A dog was supposed to carry a bomb, strapped to its body, and reach a specific static target. Then the dog would release the bomb by pulling with its teeth a self-releasing belt and return to the operator. The bomb would then be detonated either by a timer or remote control. A group of dogs practiced for half a year, but even the smartest ones could not master the task.
The first group of anti-tank dogs arrived at the frontline at the end of the summer of 1941 and included 30 dogs, 40 trainers, 6 cooks, 6 drivers and 10 miners. Their deployment revealed serious problems — to save fuel and ammunition, dogs had been trained on tanks which stood still and did not fire their guns. In the field, dogs refused to dive under moving tanks. Some persistent dogs ran near the tanks, waiting for them to stop, but got shot in the process. Gunfire from the tanks scared away many of the dogs. They would run back to the trenches, often detonating the charge upon jumping in, injuring Soviet soldiers. To prevent that, the returning dogs had to be shot, often by the people who had sent them. This made the trainers unwilling to work with new dogs.
Out of the first group of 30 dogs, only four managed to detonate their bombs near the German tanks, inflicting an unknown amount of damage. Six exploded upon returning to the Soviet trenches, killing and injuring soldiers. Three dogs were shot by the Germans and taken away, despite furious attempts of the Soviets to prevent it. This gave away all details of the detonation mechanism to the Germans.
Another serious training mistake was revealed later – Soviets used their own diesel-engine tanks to train the dogs rather than German tanks, which had gasoline engines. As the dogs relied on their acute sense of smell, the dogs sought out familiar Soviet tanks instead of strange-smelling German tanks.
It sounds too dumb strange to be true, but you can never overunderestimate the military, can you?
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