The Navy will end all research studies that involve testing on dogs and cats after an intense campaign by activists, influencers and congressional members.
Navy Secretary John Phelan announced last week that the service would halt the animal experiments and ordered a review of all medical research to ensure the studies align with ethical guidelines and “scientific necessity.”
“Today, it gives me great pleasure to terminate all Department of the Navy’s testing on cats and dogs, ending these inhumane practices and saving taxpayer dollars,” Phelan said in a statement on the social media platform X.
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The announcement follows a yearslong campaign by White Coat Waste Project, a nonprofit whose aim is to stop the U.S. government from using animals or funding research that harms animals, and to end several Defense Department studies, including Navy research on erectile dysfunction, constipation and incontinence in humans that used cats as subjects.
As recently as last year, the Defense Department funded a research initiative using beagles to test an experimental drug, according to the group. The DoD banned the use of dogs in trauma training and weapons testing in the late 1980s but has used them in limited medical research.
White Coat Waste estimates that the federal government spends $20 billion each year on research studies that involve dogs and cats.
“We applaud Secretary Phelan, Secretary Hegseth and President Trump for first slashing the U.S. government’s largest dog lab and now sending the Pentagon’s cat and dog abuse to the litterbox of history. Defunding dog and cat labs has been our top priority for Trump 47,” the group’s founder and president, Anthony Bellotti, said in a statement.
White Coat Waste announced in mid-May that the Pentagon halted funding for the Navy’s $10.8 million medical research project on cats. The group credited conservative influencer Laura Loomer, who has called attention to the issue on her “Loomer Unleashed” podcast and social media platforms, and billionaire and presidential adviser Elon Musk for lobbying for change.
“We exposed animal testing contracts at the Department of Defense, and @PeteHegseth and Secretary Phelan took immediate action to end these cruel and abusive taxpayer-funded experiments on innocent animals,” Loomer wrote on X on May 28. “This is such an amazing victory toward the end of taxpayer-funded animal testing!”
Last year, Congress signed legislation to end research at the Department of Veterans Affairs that used cats, dogs and primates. White Coat Waste began lobbying lawmakers to end the VA’s use of live animals for experiments in 2017.
After Phelan’s announcement, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wrote the Navy secretary and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth thanking them for the change.
But they asked that the ban be expanded to include the use of live animals for non-medical research, such as trauma training and weapons experiments.
For example, according to PETA, the Navy continues to use mammals for decompression sickness and oxygen tests, while the Army is allowed to use mammals, including primates and marine mammals, in weapons testing.
“Pigs, rats and other animals feel pain and fear just as dogs and cats do, and their torment in gruesome military experiments must end,” PETA Vice President Shalin Gala said in a statement.
“PETA appreciates the Trump administration’s decision to stop the Navy’s torture tests on dogs and cats, and we urge a broader ban across the Pentagon.”
PETA also has pressed the Pentagon to halt funding for research that involves animals at foreign institutions.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., reintroduced a bill last month that would end U.S. government funding of research that involves animals in China, including Hong Kong; Iran; North Korea; and Russia.
“American taxpayer dollars should never fund dangerous, cruel experiments in animal research labs — much less in China or other adversarial countries,” McClain said in a statement. “This common-sense legislation ensures taxpayer dollars are not wasted on reckless research.”
“Hard-working taxpayers in eastern North Carolina and across America should not pay for risky experimentation in countries not subject to regular oversight and accountability,” Democratic co-sponsor Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina, said in a news release.
— Pentagon reporter Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.
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