While agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs drag their feet and stall efforts to reduce wasteful government animal experiments, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is setting the standard for how it should be done.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has just announced a robust plan to develop a test to replace deadly experiments on dogs and to adopt out 27 dogs from the FDA’s taxpayer-funded labs.
#FDA is taking new steps to reduce reliance on dogs in drug studies; conducting research that can lead to the development of novel informatics models that can take the place of animal testing – and save thousands of dogs from being used in future studies https://t.co/Hw9EdtcVnA
— Scott Gottlieb, M.D. (@SGottliebFDA) November 16, 2018
As reported by Business Insider, Independent Journal Review, and others, the laudable effort follows ongoing advocacy by lawmakers, WCW and its supporters. This summer, 28 bipartisan lawmakers working with WCW urged the FDA to retire dogs and other animals from its labs, and over 400,000 WCW supporters have since asked the agency to do the same. Since 2016, WCW and its members have been actively campaigning to end dog experiments at FDA and other federal agencies.
The FDA understands that lethal #dog experiments are cruel and outdated. When will the VA and our other federal agencies catch on? https://t.co/LH2kqRyXHY
— Dina Titus (@repdinatitus) November 17, 2018
This past summer, colleagues & I sent a bipartisan letter to the @US_FDA urging them to retire dogs from testing labs. I’m proud to learn that the agency is taking steps to do so, and are developing alternatives to end cruel dog testing! https://t.co/pa1tauAbrX
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) November 19, 2018
The announcement is the second major move by FDA this year to reduce its animal testing following WCW campaigning. Earlier this year, it canceled nicotine addiction experiments on young squirrel monkeys and retired the primates to an accredited sanctuary.