Following advocacy by over 1.2 million White Coat Waste Project supporters, the U.S. Senate is stepping up to protect survivors of wasteful government animal experiments!

Senate bill could save many federal lab animals’ lives and give them a new homehttps://t.co/8M0zwo4VPU

— TIME (@TIME) July 30, 2019

As reported by TIME, Washington Examiner, Associated Press, and others, today, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), with the support of Sens. Martha McSally (R-AZ), Gary Peters (D-MI), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), introduced the Animal Freedom from Testing, Experimentation and Research (AFTER) Act (S. 2322). The WCW-backed bill–which we’re calling Violet’s Law after the rescued ex-lab dog who inspired it–requires that all federal agencies enact policies allowing for the retirement of animals after experiments end in government labs.  The House of Representatives’ version of the bill was introduced back in May and already has support from nearly three dozen bipartisan cosponsors.

Federal labs experiment on about 50,000 dogs, cats, primates, rabbits and other regulated animals each year (excluding mice and rats). Sadly, since most government agencies do not have policies allowing lab animal retirement, virtually all of these animals–including puppies and kittens–will be killed, even if they’re healthy at the end of testing. But, taxpayers bought these animals and we want Uncle Sam to #GiveThemBack!

Every animal deserves the chance to be adopted into a loving, caring home. https://t.co/1gshd1QTmP

— Martha McSally (@SenMcSallyAZ) August 2, 2019

Animals that have been retired from federal research programs should be able to be adopted—not put down.https://t.co/rQNvS1pIER

— Senator Gary Peters (@SenGaryPeters) August 27, 2019

WCW has been successful in compelling agencies like the USDA to adopt out cats and the FDA to retire monkeys to sanctuary on a case-by-case basis, but these agencies and others still do not have formal policies allowing lab animal retirement. Violet’s Law would change that. All animals in federal labs deserve a chance at a happy ending like Violet, former USDA cats Petite and Delilah and the FDA monkeys.

Animals released from taxpayer-funded labs following WCW efforts (L-R): Violet was rescued from a lab by a WCW board member. Delilah was retired by the USDA when WCW shut down its kitten slaughterhouse. And this male squirrel monkeys is one of 26 who WCW got released from the FDA’s now-defunct nicotine lab.