Dear Taxpayer,
My mother instilled a love for animals in me when I was just a kid.
She taught me all about the ethical problems of animal testing. Her lessons stuck.
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Andrew Wheeler.
I served as the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2018-2021.
And I led the plan to ban ALL animal testing on dogs, rabbits, and other mammals at the EPA.
Signing that order was one of the proudest moments of my life. I signed it in mom’s honor.
But today I’m writing to you because the current administration is undoing this important work. Millions of animals are at risk. If you care about animals in laboratories like I do, then you need to know what’s happening in our government right now.
When I took office, it was estimated that as many as 20,000 animals each year were still being used in the EPA’s in-house tests. Millions more were being killed by industry to fulfill EPA’s outmoded testing requirements.
Beagle puppies and other animals in these tests are forced to breathe or ingest chemical doses hundreds of times higher than real-life human exposures, sometimes for months on end.
I was determined to take bold action to tackle this problem, Taxpayer.
I signed the directive to curb animal testing across EPA. My strategy called for reducing mammalian studies funded and required by the EPA by 30% by 2025, and eliminating them in their entirety by 2035.
As you probably know, it’s also typical for animals abused in these experiments to be killed at the end, even when they are healthy.
It’s cruel. It’s unnecessary. It’s wasteful.
Records obtained by the White Coat Waste Project (WCW), where I serve as a volunteer member of the Advisory Board, expose how the EPA eliminated the hard benchmarks I set for reducing animal tests and abandoned any commitment to fully ending them.
Taxpayer, this secretive and disturbing move destroys all accountability from our government. It means animal testing could go on forever!
Records obtained by WCW also reveal that instead of retiring the rabbits as I directed, the Biden Administration has refused to release a single one. Unless we take immediate action, they plan to slaughter these healthy bunnies when they’re no longer useful.
Some of the bunnies have spent over a decade there.
When my friends at WCW invited me to join their Board of Advisors, I knew it was a great opportunity because they unite Republican and Democratic members of Congress. WCW works with both sides to cut wasteful spending on government animal experiments.
It’s compassionate. It's savvy. It's effective.
You and I know that animal testing poorly translates to humans. Computer models and organs-on-chips are faster and more precise at predicting human outcomes, less expensive—and obviously more animal-friendly.
However, the Biden Administration’s tragic decision to lean into animal testing is at odds with sound science. It’s at odds with public opinion. And on this important issue, it’s the wrong side of history.
The choice is not between “doing animal tests” and “doing nothing.” The choice is between right and wrong. And it’s between maintaining the status quo and challenging the establishment.
I’m proud to challenge the animal testing establishment.
I’m proud to have led the first federal agency to phase out animal testing in U.S. history.
And I’m proud to have done it while my mom was still with us—just a year before she passed away.
That’s why I’m proud to partner with WCW to continue this fight. We can’t give up now.
But we can’t do it alone, either.
Sincerely,
Honorable Andrew Wheeler
Former EPA Administrator
Board of Advisors
White Coat Waste Project
P.S. Taxpayer, as the head of the EPA, I led the agency to ban animal testing. But the Biden Administration just canceled my plan. They even plan to slaughter more healthy bunnies who I ‘pardoned’ and should be retired. If you care about animals in labs—and I know you do—then please watch my new video here and join WCW to hold the Biden Administration accountable. Thank you.