WCW Billboards to Biden: Save the #Stokes7

11 March 2024 | Blog

 

  • WCW just launched a billboard campaign near the Stokes VA in Cleveland urging President Biden to cancel the lab’s misguided plan to restart wasteful and cruel cat experiments and save the #Stokes7.
  • Congress just defunded and directed the VA to eliminate all testing on cats by 2026, but VA Secretary McDonough is trying to resurrect them before the final deadline.
  • After ending cat testing in 2021, the Stokes VA lab in Cleveland is trying to ram through a new invasive, unnecessary, and illegal $50,000 medical device test in which cats would have wiring implanted into their legs and backs, risking paralysis and death despite funding restrictions and Congressional and public opposition.


Last week, after White Coat Waste Project (WCW) lobbying, Congress passed, and President Biden (a cat dad) signed, historic, first-of-its-kind legislation directing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to fully eliminate all experiments on cats, dogs, and primates by 2026.

But, as WCW previously exposed, the VA is trying to ram through a new wasteful and cruel cat experiment before the 2026 deadline.

To coincide with Sunshine Week, an annual event dedicated to increasing government transparency, WCW has launched a new billboard campaign to expose this wrong-headed plan and urge President Biden to cancel it.

Here’s the billboard running in several locations near the VA’s Stokes lab in Cleveland, Ohio ????

© Fox 8 News

Some background:

Back in 2021, the VA ended its last active cat experiments following a years-long White Coat Waste Project campaign. In 2022 and 2023, not a single cat was confined or abused in the VA’s labs. We’re working to keep it that way.

But, despite protests from WCW, taxpayers, and Congress, VA Secretary Denis McDonough is trying to restart cat testing at the notorious Stokes VA lab in Cleveland.

McDonough personally greenlit an invasive, unnecessary, and illegal $50,000 medical device test in which seven cats (the #Stokes7) would have wiring implanted into their legs and backs, risking paralysis and death.

Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent and shouldn’t be forced to fund wasteful and inhumane experiments on pets!

Related Blogs

Posted by megm | 29 January 2026
  A new White Coat Waste (WCW) investigation reveals that American tax dollars via the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are still funding cruel, outdated experiments on dogs, cats, and...
Posted by amcdonald | 27 January 2026
  White Coat Waste (WCW) has uncovered that the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) has been breeding and maintaining a colony of dogs with genetic vision disorders for nearly 50 years,...
Posted by megm | 26 January 2026
  A new White Coat Waste (WCW) investigation has uncovered a major biosafety breach at one of the most dangerous National Institutes of Health (NIH) animal labs in the country.  Documents exposed by...