The White Coat Waste Project (WCW) continue to relentlessly pursue the US Department of Veterans Affairs which has wasted American taxpayers’ money in the pursuit of animal cruelty by conducting painful experiments on cats.
Through their efforts, they ended cruel cat experiments back in 2021 “and the enactment of bipartisan legislation defunding them” as stated by Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President at WCW.
His full statement on the latest criticism by WCW of the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is as follows:
“The VA ended its cruel cat experiments back in 2021 following our campaigns and the enactment of bipartisan legislation defunding them. In fact, no federal lab is currently conducting painful experiments on cats because of our work with Congress. But now, the VA is brazenly lying to lawmakers to ram through a new illegal and wasteful $50,000 cat experiment at the notorious Cleveland VA by falsely stating the tests are “required” and “painless,” claims that are easily debunked by VA documents showing the cats will undergo invasive surgeries to implant wiring that will cause significant pain, possible paralysis and may even kill them. Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay, and we’re demanding that President Biden step in and cancel the VA’s preposterous plan to put more cats under the knife in a reckless spending spree opposed by Republicans and Democrats in Congress and on Main Street. Stop the money. Stop the madness!”
Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President at WCW
WCW state with confidence backed up by receipts that a VA Assistant Secretary is lying to Congress to defend the unnecessary and wasteful cat tests by falsely claiming, among other things, that they’re “required” by the FDA and “painless,” when they are definitely not mandated, and the tests involve significant pain, and some cats may even die.
The lies came about because of concerns expressed by U.S. Representatives Dina Titus (D-NV) and Brian Mast (R-FL) in a letter to Denis McDonough the Secretary of the US Department of Veteran Affairs, over McDonough’s personal approval of VA plans to initiate a new invasive experiment on cats. They state in their letter that: “The decision appears to be at odds with Congressional intent, federal law, and the VA’s own animal research policy and agency efforts to eliminate the use of cats.”
WCW reproduce the relevant parts of that letter on their website and I republished the image below.
VA stonewalled that letter which sought a response. But then after months of stonewalling, and following pressure from WCW and its members, they did respond and it is “littered with falsehoods about the $50,000 proposal which contradicts the agency’s OWN documents obtained by WCW.”
VA claimed that the experiment is required for regulatory approval of the experimental medical devices. That is incorrect according to WCW when they say that “cat testing is not required by any federal law or policy and the FDA’s burdensome animal testing mandate was ended in December 2022.”
VA’s misleading letter to Congress.
Further, VA claim in correspondence with Congress that “cats will undergo six months of painless observation and evaluation.”
WCW claim that this is a further misleading statement by VA as “the experiments involve subjecting all seven cats to pain and distress from the device implant and wiring going through open wounds in their skin.”
VA made a further claim to Congress in correspondence by stating that “cats will not be euthanised as part of this study”.
This was fact checked by WCW which stated in response as follows: “As we previously pointed out, not only does this project involve pain and distress, but the cats may develop infections, brain damage, or other untreatable conditions that prompt the white coats to kill them. This is exactly what happened in previous Cleveland VA device tests on cats.”
And in fourth misleading statement, VA claim in correspondence to Congress that “each cat will be paired with a forever home.”
WW’s fact check on that statement is as follows: “As we previously pointed out and explained above, some of the cats may get sick and die from the Cleveland VA’s experimentation. And we’ve busted the Cleveland VA in the past for lying about adopting out ‘friendly’ dogs that it really killed.”
“Currently, no lab at the VA or any other federal agency is abusing cats in painful experiments. WCW shut them all down. Help us stop these new VA cat tests before they start.”
WCW
Finally, I am personally a great fan of WCW. They work relentlessly to improve cat welfare and save taxpayer dollars. A great mission. I hope this article encourages others to support them. Those who might be unaware of their great efforts.
