The Pentagon is now barred from carrying out painful experiments on dogs and cats, thanks to new language in the defense policy bill President Trump signed Thursday.
The change was written by Congress after lawmakers recoiled from reports earlier this year that the Navy was funding experiments that shocked and crippled cats as part of erectile dysfunction and incontinence research.
The Navy shut down all dog and cat testing after those revelations, but the new law goes further, directing a halt across the entire Defense Department.
“Research and testing methods involving dogs and cats are outdated. We must adopt more scientific approaches to improve lives,” said Rep Don Davis, a North Carolina Democrat who backed the changes. “Standing against cruelty to animals is a universal value that everyone should support, regardless of political views.”
The law allows some research as long as it’s not “painful.” The Defense Department secretary can waive the ban if he determines an experiment is “in the national security interests of the United States.”
The White Coat Waste Project, which exposed the Navy’s cat project earlier this year and has for years been pushing to reel in taxpayer-funded animal testing, saw the legislation as a major milestone.
“Across federal agencies, the Trump administration has slashed tens of millions of dollars in animal testing exposed by White Coat Waste investigations,” said Anthony Bellotti, WCW’s president.
He pointed to the National Institutes of Health’s move to cut experiments that prodded gender transitions on animals and drug testing on beagles and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s move to set an end to primate testing.
The Environmental Protection Agency also began retiring some of the research animals at its lab in North Carolina.
Mr. Bellotti said the momentum for the changes was built on a broad coalition.
It ranged from Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill to conservative social media figures like Laura Loomer, members of Mr. Trump’s family, Trump confidantes such as Elon Musk and Roger Stone, and progressive names such as Ben Cohen, co-founder of ice cream powerhouse Ben & Jerry’s.
“Taxpayers should not be forced to pay billions for wasteful animal testing in laboratories around the world—and thanks to White Coat Waste’s advocacy, along with leadership from the Trump administration and Congress, that era is coming to an end,” Mr. Bellotti said.
The determinations of what experiments are deemed painful rest with an Agriculture Department policy that lays out the different levels of research and attendant pain.
Putting a puppy on a diet to manipulate its weight a bit would be OK. So are basic injections or skin scrapings, or attempts to breed them.
But making surgical implants, inducing tumors, forcing animals to face “noxious” stimuli or even putting them through forced exercise that causes “distress of exhaustion” are forbidden.
Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican and one of Congress’s top waste-watchers, said U.S. money often flowed to overseas labs that did the dirty work on painful animal experiments.
“Our furry friends and the American people will be safer with defense dollars that protect our homeland instead of funding nonsense pseudoscience,” she said.
Researchers who use animal testing argue that there isn’t yet a good substitute for critical experiments that improve human health.
Opponents argue that without prods such as deadlines or bans, those alternative methods will never emerge.
