Marcy Kaptur Co-Sponsors Bill to Ban NIH Funding for Experiments on Cats and Dogs

The Cleveland VA Credit: Tim Evanson/FlickrCC

Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur is a co-sponsor in a newly introduced bipartisan bill that would prohibit NIH funding from being used on experiments on dogs and cats.

The Preventing Animal Abuse and Waste (PAAW) Act would also increase transparency and accountability on testing on pets.

“Most of the experimentation that is happening on dogs and cats is being funded by the NIH,” says Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President at White Coat Waste Project, a government watchdog that is dedicated to cutting taxpayer funding for cruel and wasteful experiments on animals. “And a lot of it is happening at colleges and universities and also some private companies.”

The White Coat Waste Project has used Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits to obtain information on what the group alleges has been animal abuse in NIH-funded laboratories. Earlier this year, in January, WCW filed a lawsuit against NIH after the organization failed to give WCW documents and records of animals being abused in experiments.

“We find that sunshine is the best disinfectant, so we try to expose what’s happening in these government funded animal laboratories and then launch campaigns and work with congress to cut the funding and save animals,” Goodman says.

Sponsor Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) in a statement said that the issue cuts across party lines.

“As animal lovers, we’ve been disturbed to learn the scale and scope of barbaric and unnecessary dog and cat experiments funded by the National Institutes of Health,” she said. “Americans across the political spectrum have been horrified to learn their tax dollars are being used to subsidize cruelty to thousands of puppies and kittens in labs every year… The PAAW Act will ensure taxpayers’ hard-earned money is not wasted on outdated and cruel experiments on pets.”

More than 62,000 cats and dogs are locked in NIH-funded labs in the U.S., according to WCW. Nearly 18,000 of those animals are subjected to animal experiments. The U.S. government is the largest funder of animal testing, spending at least $20 billion of taxpayer money each year on painful experiments on cats and dogs including, according to WCW:

Septic shock experiments on beagle puppies
Breeding kittens and puppies, causing them to suffer from genetic disorders
Injecting beagle puppies with cocaine and fentanyl
Waterboarding kittens, and forcing them to swallow balloons

In 2017, WCW launched a billboard campaign against the Cleveland Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center for conducting experiments on dogs. As a result of WCW’s efforts, experiments on dogs and cats have not continued at the Cleveland VA since 2021. Congress directed the VA to eliminate testing on cats by the year 2026 after President Biden signed new legislation.

But the VA is attempting to conduct a new cat experiment before the 2026 deadline, according to WCW.

Kaptur has regularly received high marks in the Humane Society Legislative Fund’s Humane Scorecard rankings, which tracks legislative action involving animals.

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