'Rogue employee' at HHS changed voicemail to Domino's pizza recording

Callers hoping to voice complaints about federal animal testing with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this week instead reached what sounded like the voicemail for a popular pizza chain after a “rogue” staffer changed the phone’s outgoing message.

The White Coat Waste Project (WCWP), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to “expose and close the U.S. government’s $20 billion animal testing business,” urged social media followers last Friday morning to call the HHS and demand the agency cut funding for cat testing at a National Institutes of Health-funded lab at the University of Missouri.

The group’s post included two phone numbers that route to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s office.

Calls that flooded in were initially either answered or sent to a standard voicemail, according to the group. But by Tuesday afternoon, callers were greeted with a message that said, “Thank you for calling Domino’s pizza. Can you please hold? Thank you.”

WCWP Senior Vice President Justin Goodman recalled the message during a Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship subcommittee hearing on “secret” government spending on Wednesday, claiming his organization had identified “at least $86 million” in funding awarded by the Trump administration that was being used to conduct testing on dogs.

“Torturing puppies with our tax dollars isn’t funny, but people at HHS apparently think it is,” Goodman told senators.

An HHS spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday the voicemail was “an unauthorized action by a rogue employee and not representative of HHS.”  

“The issue has been addressed, and the phone line is now functioning normally,” the spokesperson said. The HHS did not respond to questions about whether the staffer could face disciplinary action.

Goodman did not appear satisfied with that response, telling The Hill it was not an “isolated incident” but rather demonstrated a “broader pattern of defiance, deception, and dismissiveness from RFK’s agencies” against the WCWP’s criticism.

“First, White Coat Waste exposed how the NIH doled out over $126 million in new taxpayer money to pharmaceutical company and university dog and cat labs and repeatedly lied about it — all on RFK’s watch,” Goodman said.

“Now, as we testified at yesterday’s Senate Sunshine Week hearing, staff at RFK’s agency are childishly trolling taxpayers who are calling to oppose NIH’s wasteful spending on pet abuse that White Coat Waste exposed.”

The group later shared a video on the social platform X of the recording being played for subcommittee Chair Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

“That’s not OK,” Ernst said, shaking her head. “Actually makes my stomach turn.”