• Following years of White Coat Waste (WCW) campaigns, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has officially recommitted to meeting its 2035 deadline to phase out all testing on dogs, rabbits, and other mammals.
• Today, WCW spoke at an event alongside Trump EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and former Trump EPA chief Andrew Wheeler to announce the big news.
• The first Trump EPA’s plans to phase out animal testing by 2035 and retire rabbits were historic government firsts, but WCW exposed how the Biden EPA canceled that deadline and killed adoptable rabbits.
• Reinstating the first Trump EPA’s plans has been a top priority for WCW since day one of the new Trump administration.
• WCW held the EPA accountable while legacy animal rights groups stayed silent as the Biden EPA axed Trump’s animal testing phase-out and retirement plans and continued lab abuse.

It’s official: At an event today at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), White Coat Waste (WCW) joined Trump EPA head Lee Zeldin for his announcement that the agency has recommitted to meeting its 2035 deadline to phase out all testing on dogs, rabbits, and other mammals.

During his remarks, Administrator Zeldin recognized his years of work with WCW dating back to his time in Congress, when he was honored with a Waste Warrior award for helping end dog testing at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Zeldin and WCW were also joined by former Trump EPA chief Andrew Wheeler — now a volunteer WCW adviser — and Oliver, a beagle rescued from Dr. Fauci’s lab supplier.

Reinstating the Trump EPA’s 2019 animal testing phase-out plan and lab animal retirement policy — both of which WCW exposed were canceled by the Biden EPA — has been a top priority for WCW since day one of the new Trump administration.

Following discussions with WCW, the EPA made tremendous progress last year to get back on track, including shutting down its in-house animal labs and adopting out rabbits, rats, and fish.

Zeldin’s move will expedite the end of the EPA’s wasteful animal tests revealed by WCW, including outdated red tape still forcing companies to poison puppies with pesticides and other experiments that make animals obese, lock them alone in hot cages to mimic global warming, electroshock them, and force them to inhale wildfire smoke and rifle and handgun emissions.

A quick history lesson: 

In 2018, WCW first uncovered that the EPA was abusing 20,000 rabbits, mice, and other victims each year in cruel, expensive experiments at its in-house labs. We successfully united bipartisan lawmakers from the Freedom Caucus to the Progressive Caucus to crack down on these animal tests.

In 2019, WCW worked with then-Trump EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to launch a historic initiative to eliminate all EPA experiments on mammals by 2035 and retire survivors. This was the first time in history that a federal agency committed to a deadline to end animal testing.

We subsequently exposed how the Biden administration quietly revoked the 2035 deadline at the urging of agency bureaucrats and environmental groups who asked the EPA to scrap Wheeler’s plan and ramp up animal testing. Records obtained by WCW showed how the Biden EPA even killed rabbits who were supposed to be retired to loving homes, like Jasper.

This lab record obtained by WCW details how the Biden EPA refused to allow an aging rabbit named Jasper to be placed in special housing to accommodate his mobility issues and ordered the staff to kill him instead—even though the EPA was supposed to adopt out its rabbits and WCW offered help to rehome them.

While legacy animal rights groups stayed silent and praised the EPA for killing its plan to phase out wasteful testing, WCW led the only years-long campaign that united Congressional Republicans and Democrats to pressure the EPA and passed legislation directing the agency to restore its phase-out timeline and retirement plans

We’re proud of this hard-fought win for animals and taxpayers!