PETITION TARGET: U.S. Congress
Over 62,000 dogs and cats are imprisoned in cages and forced to suffer through cruel experiments in the U.S. — including almost 18,000 dogs and cats who were allegedly used to test how much pain they could endure with no relief — according to the Washington Examiner. The majority of these are funded by taxpayer money and sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The NIH has reportedly sponsored many cruel experiments on dogs and cats in recent years – including injecting puppies with cocaine and devocalizing dogs before euthanizing them and dissecting their bodies. NIH experiments on cats reportedly included funding a Russian lab to sever 18 cats’ brain stems, then covering the brain-dead cats in electrodes and making them walk on treadmills, according to The Washington Times.
A newly-introduced bipartisan Preventing Animal Abuse and Waste (PAAW) bill would prohibit NIH research on dogs and cats that causes considerable pain or distress, falling under the Department of Agriculture’s D or E pain category. This includes most surgeries or research where pain relief medication is needed. It may also include categories of tests that lead to or require death – among several other inhumane types of experiments.
The PAAW Act would also end NIH funding for tests that cause significant pain to dogs and cats. The bill’s sponsors stressed that the NIH should look to other available research alternatives to spare dogs and cats from unnecessary suffering and that federal experimentation on dogs and cats should require more detailed reporting and transparency, according to a press release.
Cats and dogs should not have to suffer a life of painful, inhumane experiments ending in unnecessary death — and U.S. taxpayers should not have to finance such cruelty.
Sign our petition urging Congress to pass the PAAW Act to end painful federally-funded research on dogs and cats.
