INSTANT IMPACT: Congress Defunds DOD Dog & Cat Tests, Cites WCW Exposés

Posted by Amanda Nieves
14 June 2024 | Blog

 

  • Citing WCW exposés and campaigns, the House unanimously passed bipartisan legislation defunding the Defense Department’s dog and cat testing.
  • The bill marks the first time Congress has voted to prohibit all DOD spending on dog and cat experiments
  • Recent WCW investigations exposed how the DOD is wasting millions on cruel and entirely unnecessary experiments on beagles and kittens
  • Republicans and Democrats in Congress weighed in and united to stop the DOD’s wasteful testing on pets uncovered by WCW
  • WCW first exposed DOD’s dog experiments in its 2016 “Spending to Death” report

UPDATE: May 28, 2025 
VICTORY! Following WCW’s investigation and campaign, the Department of Defense cut funding for its deadly $10 million cat constipation experiments and the U.S. Navy enacted a historic policy banning all testing on dogs and cats. 

Original post: June 14, 2024

Last month, a White Coat Waste Project (WCW) investigation uncovered how the Department of Defense is wasting nearly $1 million of taxpayers’ money to torture beagles in completely unnecessary and cruel drug safety tests.

Just a few weeks after the story broke, Congress is taking action to stop the Pentagon’s wasteful spending on pet abuse in tax-funded testing labs.

The House just unanimously passed a bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act—the annual must-pass bill that sets DOD policy—that cuts funding for all of the DOD’s experimentation on dogs and cats.  The amendment was championed by U.S. Representatives Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Nancy Mace (R-SC), and Don Davis (D-NC) and it’s the first time ever that Congress has voted to defund all of the Pentagon’s pet abuse. The NDAA now heads to the U.S. Senate.

Congress defunds DOD animal tests

WCW recently exposed how the U.S. Army has commissioned a $949,108 experiment on beagles in which the animals will be forced to ingest massive doses of an experimental drug for the alleged purpose of winning FDA approval, even though the FDA says it doesn’t mandate dog testing. The DOD project started last year and is slated to run until July 31, 2024.

Congress defunds DOD animal tests

WCW has also obtained documents detailing how the DOD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has wasted nearly $11 million since 2020 for ongoing experiments in which cats are subjected to invasive and debilitating surgeries and hooked up to electrodes for erectile dysfunction and constipation studies.

The defense bill also contains companion language inserted by Rep. Mace urging the agency to stop testing on dogs and adopt alternatives. The measure references WCW’s successful campaigns to eliminate dog and cat testing at the Department of Veterans Affairs, cancel Dr. Fauci’s runny nose drug tests on dogs, and cut FDA’s animal testing red tape.

Congress defunds DOD animal tests

Following WCW’s recent investigation, the DOD’s dog testing quickly attracted criticism from Republicans and Democrats in Congress who vowed to fight it.

Congress defunds DOD animal tests

Congress defunds DOD animal tests

We’re grateful to Reps. Mace, Moskowitz, and Davis for their outstanding leadership!  

Our solution to getting the Pentagon out of the pet experimentation business is simple: 

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