What some thought would be some grand and wondrous time where the poor defenseless beasts who had been consumed, bullied, and exploited by Man for centuries would finally have their voice (hopefully inspire the majority if not all of the population to turn vegan), turned out to be anything of the sort.
The mutated animals, did not spontaneous learn to speak english, nor spontaneously learn to speak among themselves, nor did they learn spontaneous how to balance on two legs, basic human morality, or other such things. They were every bit as intelligent as when they started. No more, no less. Many were as helpless as toddlers would be in adults' bodies, kicking, screaming crying, with no idea how to use their new limbs, as humans took month to learn how crawl, let alone walk. Most simply starved to death.
Not to mention insects that could no longer breath due to their new size, fish who were now too big for their river homes. More animals died in that months than an army of pouches could in twice that time. Carrion brought flies and the like, spreading disease.
"This is mad SCIENCE for Einstein's sake! Not mad MAGIC! I really wish people would get the different. Do they think morals, intelligence, motor skills, language, and reason, are all just there when they're born?" Said one of the scientists in a interview after he was arrested (he still had his professional pride).
But this wasn't the big problem for the scientists...
PEOPLE getting mutated? The furry community would be lining up at their front door. But ANIMALS getting mutated? The blood lust of the animal rights groups was awaken and some swore to "Make you pay, pay, pay! Until you're broke!" other convinced others to never buy anything remotely related to the science group (even if they weren't really a commercial business unto themselves), and finally there were those who took matters into their own hands and stormed the building...
Which, predictably, resulted in more release of the virus, which mutated the self righteous raiders... who were mutated into half animal hybrids, but also suffered varying levels of amnesia and brain damage. These were the creatures found by police.
Which resulted in the very large myth that these 'intelligent animals' were uplifted beasts... none realizing the 'uplifted' beasts were all dead... And they were actually re-educating humans who had lost their memories and 99% of their basic knowledge.