New U.S. Bill Plans To Cut Tax-Payer Funding To Universities That Perform Cruel Experiments On Dogs & Cats

The United States Congress is already working on important legislation to help animals held captive in laboratories. U.S. Representative Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), co-chair of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, has just re-introduced her Higher Education Loses Payments for Painful Experiments, Tests, and Studies Act, also known as the HELP PETS Act (HR 297), to eliminate all federal funding for colleges and universities that conduct painful and unnecessary experiments on dogs and cats.

This legislative effort comes after WAN’s news coverage and harrowing investigations by White Coat Waste Project (WCW) that highlighted the extent of taxpayer-funded animal testing in higher education institutions across the nation. WCW found that nearly 150 colleges and universities continue to perform painful experiments on thousands of pets annually. The HELP PETS Act would stop such schools from receiving tax payer dollars for any purpose until they end cruel animal experiments.

Among the egregious federally-funded practices uncovered by WCW are experiments at the University of Pittsburgh where cats are spun around and electroshocked for motion sickness tests, and at the University of California-Irvine, where cats’ nerves are severed and they’re shocked with electric pulses to control their facial movements. Additionally, Auburn University is breeding sick and deformed kittens who suffer loss of vision and muscle control, difficulty walking, tremors, and early death.

For decades, the University of Pennsylvania has been intentionally breeding puppies to suffer from debilitating genetic diseases for deadly experiments. The University of Missouri is buying beagle puppies as young as four months old, infesting them with hundreds of ticks, and denying the puppies pain relief.

“I introduced the HELP PETS Act to stop taxpayer dollars from supporting colleges and universities that perform cruel and unnecessary experiments on dogs and cats. We’ve seen progress in cutting federal funding for abusive animal testing at other agencies, and now it’s time to hold higher education institutions accountable too. Animal testing is cruel, and in this day and age, it has become absolutely needless. Taxpayer money shouldn’t be used to fund outdated experiments that harm our pets,” said Rep. Malliotakis.

WAN reported last year, following a WCW investigation, that the University of California-Davis canceled plans for deadly kitten experiments, shut down its entire cat colony, and adopted out their surviving cats. WCW president and founder Anthony Bellotti adopted one of those cats, named Marigold. In addition, after WAN’s breaking news coverage, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to prohibit the Department of Defense from funding dog and cat experiments.

Rep. Malliotakis and WCW have also outlined a plan for how the incoming Trump Administration can eliminate cruel testing on dogs, cats, and other animals.

“From electroshocking kittens to breeding deformed beagles, we’ve documented how over 150 U.S. colleges, which raked in $200 billion of taxpayers’ cash annually, are abusing dogs and cats in their labs with impunity. We applaud Rep. Malliotakis for introducing the HELP PETS Act to create consequences and cut all taxpayer funding to colleges that continue to torture dogs and cats in wasteful experiments. A staggering 85 percent of taxpayers—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike—oppose painful dog and cat testing, and they shouldn’t be forced to reward pet abusers. The HELP PETS Act offers a simple solution: Stop the money. Stop the madness,” said Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President of the White Coat Waste Project.