Rep. Greg Steube Of Florida Leads Bipartisan Effort To End Federal Experiments On Dogs And Cats
TAMPA FREE PRESS – Thanks to Florida Rep. Greg Steube, Republicans and Democrats may finally agree on something. A reduction, if not an end, to certain types of medical research on animals.
The White Coat Waste Project (WCW), a watchdog group that monitors federal spending on animal testing, noted that Steube, a Sarasota Republican, has drawn bipartisan support for an amendment that would curtail the use of dogs and cats for research.
Steube’s measure, which is co-sponsored by South Florida Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, would block the National Institutes of Health from experimenting on dogs or cats unless the agency director notifies Congress at least 30 days in advance and assures lawmakers that the research is “medically necessary” and cannot be done with alternative species or models.
Read: Post “Beaglegate” Rep. Steube Introduces Legislation To Cut Funding For NIH Testing On Dogs
WCW reports that the amendment is also backed by Rep. Dina Titus, a Nevada Democrat, and Republican Reps. Troy Nehls of Texas and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.
That makes it just one of nine bipartisan amendments to the funding bill for the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, which currently has 294 total amendments.
That trio also supports a separate bill floated by Steube that would defund all NIH experiments involving dogs.
Writing in the Tampa Free Press in September, Steube and WCW Senior Vice President Justin Goodman noted some of the so-called research that the NIH subjects animals to.
As they pointed out, the agency, under Dr. Anthony Fauci, subjected canines to literally being chewed on by sandflies, injected them with cocaine, cut their throats open to feed them infectious bacteria, drilled holes into dogs’ skulls, severed their vocal cords to silence the whining, and injected them with methamphetamines to give puppies heart attacks.
In a statement to the Free Press on Tuesday, Goodman praised the work of Steube and the other lawmakers.
“We applaud Reps. Steube and Moskowitz for their outstanding leadership on bipartisan efforts to cut the NIH’s taxpayer-funded cruelty to kittens and canines in labs,” said Goodman.
“Our investigations have exposed how NIH wastes more money than any other federal agency on painful and unnecessary dog and cat experiments that include de-barking beagles, intentionally breeding hundreds of sick puppies and kittens for deadly tests, and even infesting abandoned pets with biting flies and then killing them.”
“Other agencies are making progress to end outdated and cruel dog and cat experiments, but the NIH is lagging far behind. Polls show that the NIH’s wasteful dog and cats experiments are opposed by a supermajority of taxpayers — Republicans, Independents, and Democrats alike—and they shouldn’t be forced to pay.”
“Stop the money. Stop the madness!” he concluded.
