“Mr. President, Save Us.”

Taxpayer, that’s the message behind our new billboard campaign that’s SURROUNDING the Dept. of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Stokes Lab in Cleveland.

I’ve enclosed our blog below so you can see pictures and watch the media coverage of our new billboards. The awareness you and I are generating is pretty incredible.

Thanks for making this possible, Taxpayer, and for not giving up on the “Stokes 7” cats.

You give. We win. They survive. 

Megan Andersen Vice President White Coat Waste Project

P.S. After you’re done reading, please also send an email to your members of Congress urging them to BLOCK the VA’s new painful cat lab before the torture begins and retire the “Stokes 7” to loving homes. Even if you’ve done this already, please do it again!

Email Congress NOW >> 

WCW Billboards To Biden: SAVE THE #STOKES7

• WCW just launched a billboard campaign near the Stokes VA in Cleveland urging President Biden to cancel the lab’s misguided plan to restart wasteful and cruel cat experiments and save the #Stokes7.
   
• Congress just defunded and directed the VA to eliminate all testing on cats by 2026, but VA Secretary McDonough is trying to resurrect them before the final deadline.
   
• After ending cat testing in 2021, the Stokes VA lab in Cleveland is trying to ram through a new invasive, unnecessary, and illegal $50,000 medical device test in which cats would have wiring implanted into their legs and backs, risking paralysis and death despite funding restrictions and Congressional and public opposition.

Last week, after White Coat Waste Project (WCW) lobbying, Congress passed, and President Biden (a cat dad) signed, historic, first-of-its-kind legislation directing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to fully eliminate all experiments on cats, dogs, and primates by 2026.

But, as WCW previously exposed, the VA is trying to ram through a new wasteful and cruel cat experiment before the 2026 deadline.

To coincide with Sunshine Week, an annual event dedicated to increasing government transparency, WCW has launched a new billboard campaign to expose this wrong-headed plan and urge President Biden to cancel it.

Here’s the billboard running in several locations near the VA’s Stokes lab in Cleveland, Ohio 👇

Some background:

Back in 2021, the VA ended its last active cat experiments following a years-long White Coat Waste Project campaign. In 2022 and 2023, not a single cat was confined or abused in the VA’s labs. We’re working to keep it that way.

But, despite protests from WCW, taxpayers, and Congress, VA Secretary Denis McDonough is trying to restart cat testing at the notorious Stokes VA lab in Cleveland.

McDonough personally greenlit an invasive, unnecessary, and illegal $50,000 medical device test in which seven cats (the #Stokes7) would have wiring implanted into their legs and backs, risking paralysis and death.

Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent and shouldn’t be forced to fund wasteful and inhumane experiments on pets!

CONTACT CONGRESS: Rush an email to your members of Congress and demand they stop the VA's new cat tests BEFORE they begin! 

Email Congress NOW >>