Animals in Research

Today’s approval of H.R. 4502, a package of appropriations bills funding key federal agencies, offers dramatic evidence of the success we’ve achieved through our laser-like focus on the federal budgeting process.

The U.S. House of Representatives is moving forward on more of the bills funding various federal departments, and we are happy to report there are additional boosts for priority animal protection goals. Last week, the House Appropriations Committee approved bills covering the Departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Commerce, and Justice, among others.

One of our primary responsibilities as a leading voice for animals in the nation’s capital is to influence congressional deliberations concerning the annual budgets for federal agencies where animal welfare is in play. We’re off to an outstanding start for 2022! This week, the House Appropriations Committee approved a number of our priority requests in its Fiscal Year 2022 bills covering the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, State, Interior and other agencies.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

A beautiful story came out over the weekend in the Washington Post about an 11-year-old beagle named Hammy. Adopted in 2013 after living in a research laboratory for his first four years of life, Hammy became the beloved pup of journalist Melanie D.G. Kaplan.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

The U.S. Department of Agriculture secretly implemented a new procedure in 2019 to skirt its responsibility to animals at some research laboratories, documents obtained by Harvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Clinic and covered in Science Magazine, reveal.