Bipawtisan Efforts To End Taxpayer-Funded Government Waste Take Center Stage On National Dog Day

Posted by Arin Greenwood
31 August 2020 | Blog


National Dog Day is our favorite howladay here at WCW. This year, we are thrilled the spotlight’s on the incredible efforts from both sides of the aisle to end taxpayer-funded, and government-mandated, dog experiments.

My dogs have always had a very special place in my heart and I could not ask for more loyal friends. I’m proud to sponsor the PUPPERS Act to end cruel and unnecessary animal testing. #NationalDogDay pic.twitter.com/2ukrHnuEWD

In The Hill, philanthropist and WCW board adviser Louise Linton wrote a great op-ed recognizing and cheering bipawtisan efforts to cut FDA red tape, spare puppies, and save lives, by abolishing the agency’s 80-year-old dog-testing mandate.

L-R: Kia Freeman (Louise Linton Charitable Fund), Dr. Stacy Lopresti-Goodman (animal welfare expert and WCW adviser); U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), Louise Linton, and WCW VP Justin Goodman.


“You don’t need me to tell you this is not an era that will go down in history for its great bipartisanship,” she writes. “Democrats and Republicans seem to be at war. But bipartisanship on the issue of cutting government bureaucracy to save dogs and people? There, I am very happy to say and to see, and we’re united.”

It’s a terrific and important op-ed, which you can read in full below. Thank you, Louise, for being such a good friend to WCW and to dogs!

Now how about let’s check out Louise’s ideas in action—with Republican and Democrat (or, if you will, Repawblican and Democat) Congress members who celebrated National Dog Day by sharing pawsome photos of themselves with their favorite canines, and affirming their commitment to ending taxpayer-funded animal experiments, and retiring survivors of government labs to homes and sanctuaries:

And now here’s Louise’s op-ed!

This is a screenshot of Louise’s op-ed. You can read the whole thing on The Hill’s website, or below!

 

We’re united in an effort to end the FDA’s dog testing mandate

They say if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. Today lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are finally returning the favor, working together to eliminate the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) outdated, burdensome and inhumane dog testing mandate.

Eighteen members of Congress — led by Republican Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Democrat Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) — recently sent a letter to the FDA demanding answers about why the agency still forces drug makers to perform painful and ineffective tests on dogs when superior alternatives are available.

As the Congress members wrote in their letter, “dogs — even small puppies — are made to ingest or inhale large doses of drugs for months on end before being killed and dissected.”

White Coat Waste Project recently exposed that each year countless dogs are abused in laboratories to satisfy archaic FDA regulations. Heartbreakingly, beagle and hound puppies as young as one-week-old are the victims of choice precisely because they are so small, gentle, and compliant. Pain relief and anesthesia are seldom provided to avoid interfering with the test drugs.

The bipartisan coalition of lawmakers challenged the FDA’s 80-year-old animal testing red tape because these tests are not just cruel to dogs, but inaccurate and expensive. A single dog test can cost companies over $800,000. And even the FDA states, “animal testing does not always predict performance in humans,” and that “[m]any resources are invested in, and thus wasted on, candidate products that subsequently are found to have unacceptable profiles when evaluated in humans.”

scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory explained, “Historically, drug trials have been done in many different types of animals. Some of them have passed animal testing, but in human trials, they’ve failed or even killed people.” The federal government reports that fully 9 out of 10 drugs fail in human trials after passing animal tests because they are ineffective or toxic.

It’s senseless to force companies to waste time and money testing human drugs on dogs when they can do better. The lawmakers explained to the FDA that allowing companies to utilize more accurate, high-tech alternatives like “organs on a chip” technology “would save time, money and dogs, and accelerate medical innovation.” They’re right. Studies show that these methods are more accurate than animal tests at predicting drug safety in humans.

Many companies want to employ these alternatives and avoid wasteful dog tests, but are often rejected by the FDA and even punished by having products stopped dead in their tracks in the approval process.

The FDA has the authority to do away with this senseless red tape at any time, sparing dogs and bringing its drug approval regime here into the 21st century.

But the FDA largely hasn’t yet, and that’s why Congress members are taking action. In addition to the aforementioned letter, in its 2021 FDA funding bill, the House of Representatives included provisions requiring the agency to outline ways companies can currently avoid dog tests, and update its related policies.

With bipartisan support from lawmakers and taxpayers, the Trump administration has made great progress in eliminating unnecessary and wasteful animal testing, from ending grotesque kitten cannibalism experiments at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to curbing deadly experiments on dogs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, to announcing a historic phaseout of animal testing at the Environmental Protection Agency. A supermajority of Americans also backs the removal of the FDA’s dog testing requirements.

As a big-time dog lover, in a country full of people who share this canine affection, I think one of the most important reasons of all to push for reform is for the dogs. We owe them better than to test drugs on them, and then kill them, only to comply with some regulations first developed nearly a century ago.

You don’t need me to tell you this is not an era that will go down in history for its great bipartisanship. Democrats and Republicans seem to be at war. But bipartisanship on the issue of cutting government bureaucracy to save dogs and people? There, I am very happy to say and to see, and we’re united.

View this post on Instagram

 

Please check out my opinion piece in @thehill this week. Link in my bio. Thank you to my warrior friends @whitecoatwaste for your help attacking these critical issues. Thank you @repscottperry @congressmanboyle for championing this cause. You’re my HEROES. Here’s an excerpt. Click link in bio to read the whole piece. “They say if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. Today lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are finally returning the favor, working together to eliminate the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) outdated, burdensome and inhumane dog testing mandate. Eighteen members of Congress — led by Republican Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Democrat Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) — recently sent a letter to the FDA demanding answers about why the agency still forces drug makers to perform painful and ineffective tests on dogs when superior alternatives are available. As the Congress members wrote in their letter, “dogs — even small puppies — are made to ingest or inhale large doses of drugs for months on end before being killed and dissected.” 👉🏼CLICK LINK IN MY BIO FOR MORE

A post shared by L O U I S E L I N T O N (@louiselinton) on

Pretty great, right? (Right!!)

Thank you again to Louise Linton, and to Reps. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), Nita Lowrey (D-NY), Lucy McBath (D-GA), Dina Titus (D-NV), Brendan Boyle (D-PA),  Scott Perry (R-PA), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Donna Shalala (D-FL), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Richard Neal (D-MA) for your leadership and commitment to protecting animals and taxpayers, on National Dog Day and every day!

Thank you, too, for your help putting an end to taxpayer-funded animal experiments! We get A LOT done because we have the support of our 2 million members, and we are very grateful. 

Please take a moment to sign our action alert to tell lawmakers you want to cut FDA red tape to spare dogs, stop waste, and save lives!

Blog Comments

Animal protection laws are historically the lowest priority for legislation action. It is encouraging to see that despite chronic Congressional gridlock significant progress to end wasteful federal spending on deeply flawed, irrelevant & cruel animal tests has been achieved. This repeated bipartisan cooperation of Congress shows that there are many public issues that the majority of the public support and want enacted.

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