Taxpayer, despite 40 years of trying, big animal rights groups failed to stop animal testing. There. I said it.  

Animals are losing because the establishment organizations: 

• Seem too preachy 
• Stunts > strategy 
• No focus 
• Think big government is good for animals 
• Turn off Republicans 

You support White Coat Waste because: 

• No litmus test 
• Strategy > stunts 
• Laser-focused 
• Government is the enemy 
• Ds + Rs (our message unites both sides) 

What happened to P'Nut the squirrel is a tragedy. His story is all about the biggest problem for animals: big government.  

So please read this new article. It shows how you and I are ending the culture of losing…and saving animals from the feds. Then, sign our latest petition to win more. 

Stop the Money. Stop the Madness! 

Justin Goodman  Senior Vice President White Coat Waste Project

 SIGN PETITION >>
The U.S. government spends $20B+ on wasteful animal labs every year (more than anyone). Add your name to kick Uncle Sam out of the animal testing business! 

P.S. Taxpayer, animal abuse is always wrong. But if you agree that the U.S. government is the #1 offender, please sign our new petition. Thx, Justin 

How Republicans and Democrats Are Uniting to Help Animals
The work of White Coat Waste proves bipartisanship is still possible.
Originally published by The American Saga   |   Written by Zaid Jilani

By now you’ve probably heard about the case of Peanut the Squirrel.

Peanut was a social media celebrity thanks to the exposure his owner Mark Longo gave him. His popular Instagram page had over 500,000 followers, and the owner would frequently post content featuring Peanut in humorous situations.

But busybodies reported Longo to the authorities for his ownership of both Peanut and a racoon named Fred. It is generally illegal to own wild creatures in the state, and Longo had called a lot of attention to his critters through his social media presence.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation seized them and tested them for rabies, which requires euthanizing them.

The outrage online was palpable, with thousands condemning the state of New York for putting these popular creatures to death. Noticeable in the backlash was that it was led by many high-profile conservative voices.

Part of the reason for this might be conservatism’s natural skepticism of the government — particularly the Democratic-run government in New York.

But if you’ve been paying close attention to the plight of animals in America, you’d see that helping animals is increasingly becoming a bipartisan cause — with conservatives sometimes even leading the way.

 END GOVT ANIMAL TESTS >>

Stopping government waste by ending the torture of animals

One of the more interesting groups pushing the envelope on animal welfare is called White Coat Waste (WCW), which dedicates itself to ending taxpayer support for animal experiments.

With advancements in technology and greater awareness of the limited applicability of animal research for humans, WCW argues that much of this spending is simply wasteful and unnecessary.

While many animal welfare and animal rights groups are helmed by lifelong progressives, WCW has a decidedly heterodox makeup.

Unlike, say, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), some of WCW’s senior staff are drawn from conservative nonprofits and media organizations. And their messaging is designed around bridging partisan divides and getting broad support for their cause.

“We’re not an animal rights group. We consider ourselves a government watchdog group,” Justin Goodman, WCW Vice President told me.

And they’re laser-focused on government-backed animal experimentation. They don’t engage on other animal issues.

“We’re willing to work with anybody and everybody who agrees with us on this one narrow issue, whether they eat meat, wear fur, have leather shoes, whatever the case may be, as long as they oppose government-funded animal experimentation,” Goodman explained.

They’ve found a lot of success from an approach that’s three-pronged: first, they use investigations to uncover government spending on animal experimentation, second, they do education work to raise awareness about this spending, and third, they work with the public and lawmakers to defund that spending.

They’ve had a lot of success with that approach. Their work has prompted bipartisan probes into the government’s funding of cats and dogs in experiments.

And they’ve helped shut down a wide array of government-subsidized animal experimentation. Thanks in part to WCW’s work, the Veterans Administration has ended the use of dog and cat experimentation, to give one example.

TAKE ACTION NOW >>

Taking aim at university experiments

Goodman told me that his team recently visited with New York Republican Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, an ally of theirs, when she proposed a new idea: taking aim at the colleges and universities that continue to take taxpayer money from the National Institutes of Health to conduct painful experiments on cats and dogs.

This led her to introduce the Higher Education Loses Payment for Painful Experiments, Tests, and Studies Act, known as the HELP PETS Act for short.

The bill would remove federal funding from any college or university that conducts or funds painful research on cats or dogs, with a few exemptions laid out within the text. (Pain in this case is defined by categories of research laid out by the Department of Agriculture.)

Unbeknownst to many Americans, institutes of higher education receive boatloads of money from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and other federal entities to do painful research on dogs and cats. This makes them reluctant to walk away from this kind of research when taxpayers are on the hook to foot the bill.

“Federally-funded research and animal experimentation is a huge moneymaker for colleges and universities,” Goodman explained. “And they have been especially reluctant to get out of that business because it’s so lucrative for them.”

The bill is one of many vehicles WCW is using to attack government funding for these kinds of experiments. Earlier this year, the House unanimously passed WCW-backed legislation to defund the Department of Defenses’s cat and dog testing.

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A bipartisan lesson

WCW’s success in getting Democrats and Republicans to work together is remarkable in a political environment that is increasingly polarized.

But Goodman chalks that up to their unique approach, which actively avoids purity tests.

“Forcing people to be all or nothing, like a lot of establishment animal rights groups have done for the last 50 years has really alienated a lot of people,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who care about animals but feel homeless because they don’t feel like there’s organizations that represent all of their values.”

WCW’s work is so bipartisan that they’ve gotten support for their cause from almost every wing of Congress — from the firebrand progressives of the Squad to the staunch conservatives of the Freedom Caucus.

The group’s victories offer a lesson for other organizations and causes that are struggling to build support across the aisle. Highlighting one aspect of animal welfare issues — taxpayer support for cruel experiments — helps activate a broad enough coalition that can agree on one issue even if it disagrees on many others.

“I’d argue we’d made more progress in the last eight years since we really launched than other groups have made in decades, in terms of affecting public policy, changing public opinion, and actually saving animals,” Goodman said.

 USE YOUR VOICE >>