HHS says ‘rogue employee’ changed voicemail to Domino’s pizza recording

The Department of Health and Human Services said that a “rogue employee” changed a voicemail to a Domino’s pizza recording that people were calling to complain about animal testing.Last week, the White Coat Waste Project urged social media followers to call HHS and demand the department cut funding for cat testing at a National Institutes of Health-funded lab at the University of Missouri, The Hill news outlet reported.
The organization’s post included two phone numbers that route to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s office.
Initially, calls were either answered or sent to a standard voicemail, according to WCWP. Then starting 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 mentioned the message during a Senate Small Business subcommittee hearing regarding “secret” government spending on Wednesday, claiming his group 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 said.
An HHS spokesperson said Thursday that 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.
HHS did not respond to the news outlet’s questions about whether the staffer could face disciplinary action.
Goodman told The Hill that this was not an “isolated incident,” but rather showed a “broader pattern of defiance, deception, and dismissiveness from RFK’s agencies” against 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 posted a video on X of the recording being played for subcommittee Chairwoman Sen. Joni Ernst.
“That’s not okay,” Ernst said, shaking her head. “Actually makes my stomach turn.”

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