We just made history.
As first reported by Connecting Vets and Richmond, VA’s ABC TV affiliate, following pressure from White Coat Waste Project and a bipartisan Congressional coalition, the Department of Veterans Affairs has created the first-ever federal policy promoting the retirement of dogs, cats, primates, rabbits and other animals no longer needed for experiments.
It reads, in part:
VA has an ethical obligation to arrange for placement of healthy and socially adjusted animals with suitable adoptive families whenever possible through placement organizations, and fully supports efforts to do so.
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The move comes after a WCW exposé documenting that the VA experimented on and killed dogs it told reporters it “adopted out” and Congress urged the VA to create a formal policy allowing dogs to be adopted out from its laboratories and place with veterans. In their letter to the VA last September, Congress members Ted Lieu (D-CA), Dave Brat (R-VA), Dina Titus (D-NV), Dan Donovan (R-NY) and Brian Mast (R-FL) said that “fiscally and morally responsible thing to do.” Until now, chimpanzees were the only species required to be retired at the end of taxpayer-funded experiments.
We’re working to make this standard practice across the federal government. Last week, WCW worked with more than two dozen bipartisan lawmakers to launch a first-ever effort urging all federal agencies to retire dogs, cats and primates at the end of wasteful and cruel government experiments.