• Days after White Coat Waste’s (WCW) historic win against the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) last in-house dog lab, WCW is working with Rep. Nancy Mace to introduce bipartisan legislation to retire animals from federal labs.
• Violet’s Law, named after a hound rescued by WCW from a taxpayer-funded lab, would require all federal agencies to enact policies allowing lab animals to be retired and sent to safe, loving homes.
• WCW’s campaigns have secured lab animal retirement policies at several federal agencies and saved scores of animals, but most still kill healthy animals instead of retiring them.

Days after White Coat Waste’s nine-year-long campaign secured a historic win shutting down the National Institutes of Health’s last in-house beagle lab, Congress is taking action to ensure dogs and other animals locked in government labs can be retired, instead of senselessly killed, when wasteful testing is cut.

Joined by dozens of bipartisan cosponsors, Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-SC) just re-introduced the bipartisan Violet’s Law (HR 3246).

 

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The bill is named after a hound saved from a taxpayer-funded lab by WCW and requires all federal labs to enact policies allowing animals to be retired and adopted out when testing ends.

Since we launched our #GiveThemBack campaign in 2018, we’re proud to have secured the first-ever policies allowing the retirement and release of lab survivors at government agencies including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Defense (DOD).  Because of these wins, lucky dogs, cats, and primates have been rescued from government laboratories.

Survivors released from taxpayer-funded labs following WCW efforts: Delilah was retired by the USDA when WCW shut down its Kitten Slaughterhouse. Violet was rescued from a lab by a WCW board member. And Gregory is one of 26 monkeys who WCW got released from the FDA’s now-defunct nicotine lab.

Adoption should be an option. Retirement should be a requirement. Taxpayers “bought” the dogs, cats, rabbits, monkeys, and other animals confined in government laboratories, and we want Uncle Sam to give them back!

While lab animal retirement enjoys broad bipartisan support, some wayward federal agencies that experiment on animals have yet to create policies allowing it, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

There are thousands of animals locked in federal labs each year. Historically, government white coats usually kill survivors—even healthy and adoptable ones—rather than let taxpayers adopt them, or retire them to sanctuaries. It’s just more convenient. But, polls show that 71 percent of Democrats and 72 percent of Republicans want retirement, not death, for animals who survive experiments in government labs. Scientific research shows that animals released from labs make great pets, too!

Taxpayers “bought” the dogs, cats, rabbits, monkeys, and other animals confined in government laboratories, and we want Uncle Sam to give them back!

Please help us make the government give them back by urging your Congress members to cosponsor Violet’s Law to provide a second chance to animals abused in wasteful government experiments!