• Directly following White Coat Waste’s (WCW) investigations, grassroots pressure, and lobbying, Congress has advanced 2026 Pentagon budget bills that would cut funding for the Department of Defense’s (DOD) painful experiments on dogs and cats and Chinese animal labs.
• Congress’s action comes weeks after WCW convinced the Pentagon to cancel a $10 million cat constipation experiment and the US Navy banned all dog and cat testing, crediting WCW’s investigation and campaign for prompting the policy change. 
• The House and Senate Defense budget bills would also defund animal labs in all adversarial nations following WCW’s investigation exposing cruel DOD-funded drug testing on 300 beagles a week in China.
• When asked about WCW’s investigation and work with Congress to cut dog and cat tests, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tells Laura Loomer that the DOD is reviewing animal testing contracts and that  “DOD is committed to this, for sure.”
• WCW has now uncovered at least 15 active DOD contracts worth $57 million still funding painful and deadly experiments on dogs and cats in the US and around the world. 
• WCW’s ongoing investigation is the first and only one to expose and end the Pentagon‘s wasting spending on cat and dog experiments in the U.S. and foreign labs.  
• WCW’s top priorities for the new Trump Administration are defunding dog and cat tests and animal labs in China.

UPDATE (9/10/25): Following White Coat Waste lobbying, the House of Representatives has passed the Pentagon’s 2026 budget, including WCW-backed measures defunding dog and cat experiments and cutting funding for all animal testing in China and other adversarial nations.

ORIGINAL POST (7/11/25)

In May, following years of White Coat Waste investigations, lobbying, and grassroots advocacy, the Trump Administration’s Department of Defense canceled cruel $10 million constipation experiments exposed by WCW, and the Department of the Navy banned all testing on dogs and cats.  We also exposed and successfully ended a DOD-funded contract for cruel drug testing on 300 beagles a week in China.

Thank you to @RobertKennedyJr, @DOGE, @LauraLoomer, @WhiteCoatWaste, and @SenRandPaul, among others, for bringing the issue of animal abuse to our attention, leading to @SecNav’s decision to ban medical research testing on cats and dogs.

Also, thanks @mattgaetz for having me on… pic.twitter.com/hEOtAU19fW

— Kristina Wong (@SecNavSpox) May 31, 2025

These are historic WCW wins against wasteful animal tests, but our ongoing investigation has uncovered at least 15 active contracts worth $57 million from the Army and other DOD divisions that are still funding experiments on dogs and cats in labs in the US and around the world, including Canada, Italy, and Australia.   

The active DOD-funded experiments unearthed by WCW include implanting electrodes in cats’ heads and blasting them with loud noises, poisoning beagles with experimental drugs, intentionally detaching dogs’ retinas, slicing dogs’ muscles, and other barbaric abuses. 

So, we’ve kept the pedal to the metal.

We recently met with lawmakers, including House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), to celebrate our victory against the Navy’s animal labs and discuss how to extend this across the entire DOD.  

Rep. Mace continued her years of outstanding leadership on this issue by pressing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to cut painful experiments on pets.

We’re so proud of our work w/@RepNancyMace to end cruel tests on pets across the DOD!

Thank you @SecDef for cutting a $10M grant exposed by WCW that shoved marbles in cats’ rears, then enacting a Navy-wide ban on dog & cat labs & promising to cut even more wasteful animal tests https://t.co/CAHjSztDTT

— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) June 12, 2025

Now, the House Armed Services Committee has voted to advance the DOD’s 2026 budget bill that includes Rep. Mace’s WCW-backed language permanently cutting funding for the DOD’s painful experiments on dogs and cats in labs around the world starting on October 1, 2025.

Thanks to Rep. Mace and Senate DOGE Chair Joni Ernst (R-IA)—and inspired by WCW’s investigation exposing DOD-funded dog testing in China—the House and Senate Defense budget bills also include a WCW-backed measure that cuts DOD funding for all animal testing in labs in China, Russia, Iran, and other adversarial nations, and another defunding dangerous gain-of-function experiments.

Next, the Armed Services Committee’s bills will be scheduled for votes in the full House and Senate.

In response to questions about the legislation and WCW’s new investigation exposing DOD’s ongoing dog and cat labs, Secretary Hegseth told Laura Loomer that the DOD is reviewing animal lab contracts now and is “Committed to this, for sure.”

???? EXCLUSIVE ????

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth @PeteHegseth told me @LoomerUnleashed today that under his command at the Department of Defense @DeptofDefense: “we will be reviewing all of the animal testing contracts to make sure DOD is in full compliance with President Trump’s… pic.twitter.com/GBCQk4hUFH

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) July 12, 2025

These hard-fought wins didn’t happen overnight. WCW started—and is winning—the lobbying and advocacy campaign to end Pentagon pet abuse:  

• WCW followed the money trail and dropped a bombshell investigation.  
• WCW exposés sparked widespread media coverage.  
• WCW united a “strange bedfellows” coalition including Congressional Republicans and Democrats, waste warrior Sen. Rand Paul, military veterans, Elon Musk, Laura Loomer, and Ben Cohen, the legendary Ben & Jerry’s co-founder. 
• WCW rallied thousands of grassroots supporters to join the fight—donating, signing petitions, and demanding action

On May 2, 2025, Elon Musk responded to WCW’s investigation—and made DOGE take action. It worked.

Our top priorities for the new Trump Administration are defunding dog and cat testing and cutting off Chinese animal labs.  We’re delivering on both.  

WCW’s latest win is great news for taxpayers and pet owners as it sends a message to big-spending animal abusers across the federal government: