A Victory for Animal Advocates: VA Ends Cat and Dog Research

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After years of dedicated advocacy from animal rights groups, Congress, and pet lovers across the country, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced a pivotal shift in its research practices. The VA confirmed that it has ceased all feline testing and is ending research involving sensitive species, including cats, dogs, and non-human primates. This marks a significant achievement for those who have long campaigned to end government-funded animal experiments they deemed cruel and outdated.

 

However, this change did not happen overnight. The VA's history of conducting painful and lethal experiments on cats and dogs stretches back to at least the 1950s. During this era, medical practices like lobotomies were commonplace, and doctors even endorsed cigarette smoking. Though science has evolved dramatically since then, the VA's research practices remained steeped in the past for decades. In 2016, when the White Coat Waste Project first uncovered the VA's brutal experiments, such as injecting latex into puppies' arteries to induce heart attacks and severing kittens' spinal cords, the agency justified these actions as “necessary” and “essential” despite the availability of modern alternatives like AI models and organs-on-chips.

 

Pressure against the VA’s outdated methods came from all sides, including Republicans, Democrats, veterans groups, and animal rights advocates. Legislation was proposed and enacted to restrict funding for the VA’s research on dogs and cats. Alongside new public reporting requirements, lawmakers repeatedly pressed the agency to phase out these practices. 

An independent review found that the VA’s dog experiments were unnecessary, and a VA Inspector General report revealed that the agency had illegally funded and conducted some of these tests. By 2022, progress had been made when the VA ended its harmful dog testing program. Yet the agency soon proposed a controversial experiment on cats involving outdated and painful procedures. 

 

This plan faced immediate backlash from Congress, the media, and concerned citizens who flooded the VA with emails and calls. Eventually, the VA scrapped the cat experiment, acknowledging that while the cat model was once considered the standard, "more recent standards allow the goals of this project to be achieved with other approaches."

 

The bipartisan nature of this victory is notable. More than 125 lawmakers from both parties supported efforts to end these tests, and VA secretaries under both the Trump and Biden administrations endorsed initiatives to reduce painful experiments on dogs and cats. "When this project was proposed…the cat model was the accepted standard…More recent standards allow the goals of this project to be achieved with other approaches," the VA stated.

 

Although this is a win for animal advocates, the fight is far from over. Activists are now targeting similar harmful experiments at the Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Their goal is to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not funding abusive animal testing practices.

 

While progress has been made, setbacks continue to remind advocates of the need for vigilance. The Environmental Protection Agency had introduced a plan to restrict animal testing further, only to later abandon it. This highlights the importance of sustained bipartisan efforts to prioritize animal welfare in research settings, regardless of political leadership.

 

In a country where two-thirds of households have pets and many regard their dogs and cats as family, the idea of taxpayer dollars funding painful experiments on these animals feels “un-American.” But as animal advocates reflect on this victory, they remain determined to continue their efforts to ensure the unnecessary abuse of pets in laboratories becomes a thing of the past.

 

Credit: The Hill 2024-09-20