PETA Statement on VA’s Plan to End Experiments on Dogs, Cats, and Primates by 2026

For Immediate Release:
April 30, 2024

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Vice President of International Laboratory Methods Shalin Gala about the order from Congress to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to phase out live experiments on animals using cats, dogs, and primates “with limited exceptions” in two years:

Ending tests on dogs, cats, and primates is a welcome starting point, but it’s far from the finish line, given that the law allows the secretary of veterans affairs to approve tests on these species if they’re determined to be “necessary.” Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) already committed more than $2 million to study the possibility that its laboratories would undergo a “transition from dogs to pigs.” This potential cruelty is just the same script with a different cast.

Severing the spinal cords of animals and implanting pacemakers in them do nothing to address military veterans’ real health needs. Instead, the VA should achieve its goals by using the most sophisticated non-animal technology available, such as synthetically engineered human cardiac tissue and advanced computer models, not shamelessly wasting taxpayer dollars on abusing and killing animals in misguided, flawed, and deadly experiments that don’t apply to humans because of significant physiological differences among species.

More than 76,000 supporters have joined PETA in urging the VA to ditch tests on all animals, not only a select few species. It’s time to stop cheating veterans out of the human-relevant science they deserve and to implement animal-free research methods across the board.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.