Republican lawmakers introduced a pair of bills this week cracking down on taxpayer-funded pet experimentation and the breeding of dogs and cats for laboratory testing.
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On Monday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced the PUPPS Act (HR 10523), banning the breeding of dogs for experiments and retiring dogs already in labs to rescue organizations and loving homes.
Rep. Nick Langworthy’s (R-NY) bipartisan COMPACT Act (HR10522), introduced on Tuesday, aims to prohibit the use of live dogs and cats in biomedical research funded by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and promotes lab animal adoption.
These legislative moves come amid a federal shift to phase out animal testing, driven by a new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance and National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiatives, as detailed by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday.
The bills also come on the heels of two investigative reports by White Coat Waste (WCW), a bipartisan government watchdog nonprofit aimed at ending taxpayer‑funded animal testing: one documenting more than $225 million in new dog and cat lab spending by the NIH during this Trump administration, and the other exposing how Illinois-based Oak Hill Genetics, the country’s second-largest breeder of dogs for laboratories, is still selling dogs for deadly taxpayer-funded experiments.
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Anthony Bellotti, founder of White Coat Waste, issued the following statement to American Greatness:
“White Coat Waste first uncovered Dr. Fauci’s BeagleGate scandal, exposed kitten cannibalism experiments and closed the federal government’s largest cat lab and led conservatives to the fight against taxpayer-funded animal testing.
That’s why White Coat Waste strongly supports Reps. Mace and Langworthy’s new bills to defund dog and cat labs, shut down barbaric breeding operations, and retire the survivors.
These bills also hit close to home for me: I’ve adopted three cats rescued by White Coat Waste from NIH-funded labs. Reps. Langworthy and Mace understand that pets are family, and White Coat Waste is proud to work with them to stop HHS from funding experiments on dogs and cats, and ensure more survivors go from lab dogs to lap dogs and lab cats to lap cats.
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The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!”