Bill Frist: A Real Life Cat Killer

As you are no doubt aware, I rarely—if ever—delve into national political stories, especially those about potential Republican presidential candidates.

However, the revelation that one of these candidates—Bill Frist—is a real, live cat killer is one I cannot pass up mentioning.

As the old saying goes, the only thing that can really kill a politician’s political career is being caught in bed with a dead woman or a live boy, so I’m not sure how Frist’s cat killing will actually play out in the future.

But, let me say this: this is one of those things that you read about and start to think, “Jesus, that guy is a cruel bastard:”

He fessed up in his 1989 book, “Transplant,” to adopting cats from shelters when he was in medical school, treating them like pets for a while, and then using them in his research experiments. Maybe in hindsight, Trent Lott should have seen it coming.

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Bet Frist wishes now he’d refrained from giving out too much information in his first book. He made his case in “Transplant” for saving lives by learning through experiments with animals while at Harvard. It’s the part where he kept them as pets first that is bothersome.

“Desperate, obsessed with my work, I visited the various animal shelters in the Boston suburbs, collecting cats, taking them home, treating them as pets for a few days, then carting them off to the lab to die in the interests of science. And medicine. And health care. And treatment of disease. And my project.

“It was, of course, a heinous and dishonest thing to do, and I was totally schizoid about the entire matter. By day, I was little Billy Frist, the boy who lived on Bowling Avenue in Nashville and had decided to become a doctor because of his gentle father and a dog named Scratchy. By night, I was Dr. William Harrison Frist, future cardiothoracic surgeon, who was not going to let a few sentiments about cute, furry little creatures stand in the way of his career. In short, I was going a little crazy.”

Mother of God! Now, I have no problem with animals being used for legitimate necessary medical research when it is done humanely (and, preferably, after the animal died of natural causes). I recognize that sometimes, infecting a poor little pig with bladder cancer will save lives. I’m not totally in agreement with some of my colleagues here on the left when it comes to animal testing.

BUT HOUSE CATS?? CATS THAT WERE SOMEONE’S PET? The thought of that happening literally baffles me, almost as much as the fact that Frist admitted to going crazy (or almost going crazy).

Truly, though, my greatest hope is that this was an isolated lapse in judgement by Frist. Please tell me that animal shelters everywhere aren’t being stalked by medical students looking for their next ‘patients.’

Like Bob Barker always said, “Help control the pet population; have your pet spayed or neutered.”

Otherwise, their offspring might end up as a medical school experiment.

Now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to go outside and find Ellie, who I adopted from a shelter, and give her a great big hug.

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