On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted unanimously to defund painful experiments on dogs at the Department of Veterans Affairs that were exposed by WCW. But, as first reported by the Washington Free Beacon this morning, we won a second victory on Capitol Hill this week as well.
Inside the House-passed defense spending package that included the dog experimentation defund amendment was also strategically-placed language WCW worked on with Congress that requires a first-ever review and report on animal testing, abuse and transparency at the VA.
The language (see page 68) begins by referencing WCW’s VA dog experimentation campaign: “the [Appropriations] Committee is concerned by recent reports of medical experimentation on dogs at VA research facilities.” It goes on to direct the VA to produce a comprehensive report on all animal experiments at the VA during fiscal year 2017, that includes the number of VA studies using animals, the number of animals (by species) used and killed, any documented violations and how they are disclosed to the public.
The report request was secured by Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) and senior Appropriations committee members including Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Sanford Bishop (D-GA), Betty McCollum (D-MN) and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL).