White Coat Waste Project (WCW) is a non-profit organisation of around 20+ staffers making dramatic inroads into the immoral and unjustifiable funding of cruel and wasteful experiments on dogs and other animals at home and overseas by inter alia the National Institutes of Health (NIH), American’s single largest fund of animal testing. WCW is an effective lobbying organisation at the heart of the American federal government. It is supported and works with politicians such as Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) who is described by WCW as a “Waste Warrior Awardee“.
At a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee (which has jurisdiction over the NIH) Republican and Democratic lawmakers referred to WCW in two current projects namely ‘Beaglegate’ and ‘Worldwide Waste’.
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) testified to the Home Energy and Commerce Committee in support of her Accountability in Foreign Animal Research Act which is backed by WCW. The act is designed to defund animal labs in “hostile nations”. These are countries such as Russia, Iran and China. In her testimony to the Committee, she detailed her work with WCW to put a stop to NIH funding of animal labs in China and Russia. She made reference to WCW’s successful efforts to defund the Wuhan lab and all Russian animal labs where experiments on cats have taken place.
The above-mentioned act has bipartisan support which for those who are not involved in politics mean support on both sides of the aisle i.e. both Democrat and Republican. The act is supported by the honourable Donald G Davis of North Carolina, for instance. He said: “I genuinely appreciate the opportunity to testify before the Committee today on the critical issues impacting my constituents, and I look forward to continued partnership with Members on both sides of the aisle [and that] if we learn anything from the pandemic, it is that foreign animal laboratories can be breeding grounds for the most lethal pathogens.”
Another bill passing through the American government is the Protecting Dogs Subjected to Experiments Act proposed by another Waste Warrior Awardee, representative Greg Steube (R-FL) who urged the committee to support his bill which is also supported by WCW and which would defund all NIH dog testing. In his testimony to the Committee Rep. Steube referred to WCW’s Beaglegate investigations to help explain to the committee how the NIH funds, using American’s taxpayer money, cruel animal experiments on dogs.
His testimony including the following words: “The NIH spends tens of millions of dollars annually for wasteful and inhumane dog experimentation. These experiments include injecting dogs with cocaine, cutting off their vocal cords to prevent them from barking in the lab, covering beagle puppies with ticks, breeding hundreds of dogs to suffer from bleeding disorders, and infesting abandoned hounds with biting insects. The NIH’s in-house lab is currently performing septic shock tests in which dozens of puppies’ throats are cut open and infectious bacteria are forced directly into the dogs’ lungs to cause pneumonia. Experimenters then bleed out the dogs, give them transfusions, and wait to see how long the dogs can survive. Any dog that survives longer than 96 hours is then killed.”
He added that, “Last year, following an investigation by the government watchdog White Coat Waste Project and scrutiny from Congress, Dr. Fauci cancelled a misguided plan that would have wasted nearly $2 million on a series of experiments on dogs to test a seasonal allergy drug.”
WCW said that Rep. Steube’s bipartisan bill would “reduce wasteful government spending by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on unnecessary research that harms dogs. We don’t need to spend tax dollars on cruel dog experiments to advance science.”
Well done WCW. They do great work on behalf of the nation’s citizens and above all our vulnerable animals.
Statement from WCW Senior Vice President Justin Goodman
“We’re grateful to Reps. Lisa McClain and Don Davis for fighting alongside the White Coat Waste Project to defund dangerous animal labs in China and Russia, and applaud Rep. Greg Steube for leading bipartisan efforts with us to cut off the NIH’s expensive, wasteful, and cruel dog experiments at home and abroad. From Worldwide Waste to Beaglegate, our investigations have exposed that when it comes to widely opposed government animal testing, the NIH’s reckless spending is the biggest problem, and these lawmakers know the solution: Stop the money. Stop the madness!”
