HHS Staffer Alters Official Voicemail to Domino's Pizza Greeting During Protest Campaign
A staff member at the Department of Health and Human Services has been identified as changing an automated phone greeting on one of the agency's official lines to imitate a Domino's Pizza message. This unusual action occurred after a significant influx of protest calls from animal rights activists flooded the department's phone systems, creating operational disruptions.
Animal Rights Group Campaign Targets DHHS Funding
The White Coat Waste Project, a political advocacy group aligned with MAGA supporters that campaigns against taxpayer funding for animal testing, recently mobilized its supporters to contact the DHHS. According to reports from Mediaite, the group specifically demanded that the agency "cut funding for cat testing" at a National Institutes of Health-funded laboratory located at the University of Missouri.
The social media campaign directly named DHHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., providing supporters with specific phone numbers to call. "RFK Jr holds the ultimate power to cut the funding and save lives," the organization's post declared. "It's time for MAHA (and all of us) to speak up!"
Domino's Pizza Message Replaces Official Greeting
In a subsequent update, the White Coat Waste Project described calling the DHHS and receiving an automated response stating: "Thank you for calling Domino's Pizza." The group characterized this as the agency laughing at supporters who want to end what they describe as "Fauci's beagle and kitten torture experiments."
After playing the pizza shop message, the phone line reportedly directed callers to voicemail. Justin Goodman, senior vice president of WCWP, explained to Politico Pulse that the DHHS initially answered calls with human operators but switched to an automated system following the protest call surge.
"Torturing puppies with our tax dollars isn't funny, but people at HHS apparently think it is," Goodman stated during a Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship hearing on Wednesday.
DHHS Responds to Unauthorized Action
Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, confirmed to Politico that the Domino's Pizza voicemail resulted from "an unauthorized action by a rogue employee and not representative of HHS." He verified that the phone number no longer plays the pizza shop message, though it remains unclear whether the staff member responsible remains employed with the agency.
In a separate development, WCWP played the pizza message for Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican lawmaker, who responded that the prank on protesters was "not okay" and added, "Actually, it makes my stomach turn."
Broader Context of Animal Testing Debate
The DHHS under Secretary Kennedy has demonstrated receptiveness to reducing animal testing in research laboratories. In December, Kennedy stated that the Trump administration is "trying to put an end" to primate testing. A health department spokesperson told CBS News last year that "across the Trump Administration, there is a shift to prioritize animal welfare," including moves "to reduce unnecessary animal testing requirements and prioritizing human-based research."
While public sentiment generally opposes animal experimentation, researchers emphasize that viable alternatives remain limited. Deborah Fuller, director of the NIH-funded Washington National Primate Research Center, explained to CBS News that primate testing remains essential for developing medicines and therapeutics that save human lives.
"The majority of the biomedical interventions that we have today went through a non-human primate at some point," Fuller stated. "Shutting down a non-human primate research program, you're actually shooting yourself in the foot."
The incident highlights ongoing tensions between animal welfare advocates and biomedical researchers, with government agencies caught in the middle of this contentious policy debate. The unauthorized voicemail change represents an unusual form of protest within a federal agency responding to organized activism.
