Dear Friend,

Enclosed is an op-ed I wrote for National Review about how you and I are ending wasteful government spending and creating a brighter future for beagles across the country.

While the release of 4,000 puppies is cause for celebration, taxpayers must understand that puppy profiteers like Envigo will flourish until the demand for lab dogs diminishes.

That’s why White Coat Waste Project's strategy is effective: Stop the MONEY. Stop the MADNESS! 

Taxpayer, please urge Congress to support the Protecting Dogs Subjected to Experiments Act.

This new WCW-backed bill completely prohibits all NIH white coats — Envigo’s top customers — from wasting another cent on dog experiments.

But first, I hope you take a moment to read my op-ed and arm yourself with the facts.

Why We Should Celebrate the End of Medical Experiments on Beagles

By Devin Murphy

Uno, a beagle, jogs on a treadmill inside the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York, February 8, 2008. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

The DOJ's shutting down a breeder of dogs for experiments is just the latest sign that we’re moving away from pointless and cruel animal experimentation.

This has been a good month for beagles, and a bad one for the bureaucrats in white coats who abuse them.

The Department of Justice has taken unprecedented action to shut down the Cumberland, Va., branch of Envigo. Federal investigators had documented extensive abuse and neglect at the company, which is one of the nation's largest breeders of beagle puppies for painful and wasteful experiments.

Many beagles perished before inspectors realized just how bad this puppy mill was. But 4,000 survived, and these sweet hounds are being put up for adoption across the United States.

Despite the media’s interest in the Envigo case, however, reporters and outlets rarely, if ever, ask certain important questions. Such as: Why are companies “mass-producing” beagles on an industrial scale? Where are they all going? Who is buying them?

Sadly, you are. Most people are shocked to discover that the culprit behind most of America’s dog experiments is neither cosmetic nor pharmaceutical companies, but rather Uncle Sam. That’s right: The federal government spends twice as much on animal testing as the entire private sector, to the tune of $20 billion annually.

As a White Coat Waste Project investigation first exposed earlier this year, one of Envigo’s loyal customers was the National Institutes of Health (NIH). According to documents we obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the NIH was purchasing dozens of puppies from Envigo at a cost to taxpayers of $1,300 per dog.

The beagles had pneumonia-causing bacteria forced directly into their lungs to cause septic shock. Then, NIH white coats waited to see how long the dogs lived. If they made it over 96 hours, they were considered “survivors” — and then killed. We’ve just filed a new federal lawsuit to obtain more details about the NIH’s ties to the disgraced Envigo.

Indeed, WCW’s blockbuster #BeagleGate campaign has exposed millions in wasteful spending by NIH on dog experiments. Some of the experiments involved injecting puppies with cocaine, infesting puppies with flies and ticks, force-feeding dogs experimental drugs, and even cutting beagles’ vocal cords so they cannot bark.

Why beagles? In a callous — or perhaps even diabolical — document, one government agency explained that their “convenient size and docile nature” makes them fit for such cruel experimentation. Translation: They’re small and easy to abuse.

And it’s not just the NIH tormenting beagles with our money. Since 2016, WCW has documented how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) conducts some of the most painful dog experiments in the country. In one horrendous project, VA white coats injected latex into puppies’ arteries to induce heart attacks, then forced the dogs to run on treadmills to further stress their damaged hearts.

All of this sounds truly grim. But, fortunately, the future has never looked brighter for dogs locked in government labs. Recently, after WCW exposed that Dr. Anthony Fauci’s NIH division planned to spend $1.8 million for five new experiments on beagle puppies and Senator Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) pressed him for more information about the misguided project, Fauci swiftly announced that plans for the dog tests were being scrapped. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have also introduced legislation, the Preventing Animal Abuse and Waste (PAAW) Act, to defund painful NIH dog tests. A July 2022 national poll found that 73 percent of taxpayers support Congress’s efforts to curb NIH dog testing.

Additionally, for the fifth year running, the House of Representatives has included WCW-backed language in its yearly VA spending bill to defund painful experiments on dogs and cats. As a result of WCW’s efforts, and of bipartisan leadership in Congress by Representatives Dina Titus (D., Nev.) and Brian Mast (R., Fla.), the number of painful VA dog experiments has declined by a staggering 87.5 percent since WCW’s campaign began. Our effort also prompted a landmark study by the prestigious National Academies that found most of the VA’s dog testing was unnecessary and that the agency did a poor job of justifying dog use and seeking alternatives.

Congress may be polarized on some topics, but not on ending wasteful spending on animal experiments. WCW has united members of Congress across the political spectrum, from the Freedom Caucus to the Squad, to defund government waste and abuse.

The law of supply and demand applies to beagles, too. Puppy profiteers like Envigo will continue to exist until the demand for dogs diminishes. Since most of this canine-cruelty problem is taxpayer-funded, the solution is clear: Stop the money. Stop the madness.

Help WCW cut demand for lab beagles by contacting your members of Congress and urging them to pass the Protecting Dogs Subjected to Experiments Act, which would end ALL dog experiments conducted funded by NIH white coats!