Last year, following pressure from White Coat Waste Project, Congress, and veterans, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spent $1.3 million of taxpayers’ money to commission an independent review of its wasteful and cruel dog experimentation program.
Now, Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY)–Air Force and Army veterans, respectively–are leading a group calling on the VA to stop wasting money on questionable experiments and suspend all of its ongoing dog testing until the National Academies of Science review is complete in 2020. Reps. Lieu and Zeldin have both been staunch advocates against the VA’s dog experiments.
We’ve seen that experiments on dogs are often unnecessary, wasteful & cruel. With @RepLeeZeldin & nine other Members of Congress, we sent a letter to the @DeptVetAffairs demanding they suspend all ongoing dog testing & postpone any new projects. More here: https://t.co/oYrtNxhyvH pic.twitter.com/DrPCxLP8oa
— Rep. Ted Lieu (@RepTedLieu) February 14, 2019
Dogs are our 4 legged family members w the well earned title of man’s best friend & it’s time we stand up for these loyal pals! @RepTedLieu & I led MOCs today to call on @DeptVetAffairs to suspend its dog testing program. Learn more here ➡️https://t.co/uARmxutVG2
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) February 13, 2019
In their letter to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, Reps. Lieu and Zeldin–joined by Reps. Nanette Barragan (D-CA), Brendan Boyle (D-PA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Ann Kuster (D-NH), Brian Mast (R-FL), Dina Titus (D-NV), Jackie Walorski (R-IN), and the late Walter Jones (R-NC) who sadly passed away earlier this week–wrote:
As you are aware, the VA has already canceled several invasive dog studies that it initially approved after a secondary review revealed the availability of alternatives or that the work was otherwise unnecessary. We believe that the National Academies will find this to be the case for other current VA dog experiments as well. In the meantime, it would be inappropriate to use taxpayers’ money, dogs, and other VA resources for research that may ultimately be deemed wasteful and scientifically unjustifiable.