President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has now approved a program for putting retired laboratory animals up for adoption after phasing out cruel and outdated animal testing.
Lab animals will now be put up for adoption, following months of discussion with the non-profit White Coat Waste. Internal EPA documents obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) confirmed the plan to the taxpayer watchdog White Coat Waste, which has been tirelessly exposing and dismantling government-funded animal torture.
PEER said in a press release: “There are approximately 20,000 animals in EPA labs, including rabbits, mice, and rats, which are primarily used to gauge the safety of environmental pollutants. The adoption program, which is debuting at EPA’s Research Triangle complex in North Carolina, is now offering zebrafish and rats for private adoption.”
Anthony Bellotti, President and Founder of White Coat Waste, praised the plan:
“Reinstating the EPA’s animal testing phase-out and its lab animal retirement policy has been a top priority for White Coat Waste since day one of the new Trump Administration. We applaud President Trump and EPA Administrator Zeldin for keeping their promise to taxpayers and pet owners.
White Coat Waste worked with the first Trump Administration to eliminate tests on dogs, rabbits, and all other mammals by 2035 and to retire animal testing survivors. When the Biden Administration secretly revoked the 2035 deadline and killed rabbits slated for retirement, we blew the whistle—not the legacy animal groups who stayed silent while the killing resumed behind closed doors.
White Coat Waste led the only bipartisan campaign that united Congressional Republicans and Democrats to pass legislation directing the EPA to restore its phase-out timeline and retirement plans. From the beginning of the Trump Administration to today, White Coat Waste has been leading the campaign to cut EPA’s wasteful spending and to retire EPA’s lab survivors. We’re proud of our hard-fought win—and we won’t stop until the last animal is out.”
The decision to end animal testing stems from a push initiated under President Donald Trump’s first term but was later squashed by the Biden administration. Under the first Trump administration’s EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, the agency set a goal of a 30% reduction in mammal testing by 2025 and a complete phase-out by 2035, The Gateway Pundit reported.
It was the most ambitious federal effort ever to stop bankrolling animal experiments and was backed by millions of Americans who’d rather see their tax dollars fund pet adoptions than animal cruelty.
Biden’s EPA quietly scrapped the plan, a 2023 WCW investigation found. WCW also discovered that Biden’s EPA was forcing animals to choke on simulated wildfire smoke and gunpowder fumes in the name of studying “environmental justice.” Rabbits were slaughtered after their “service,” even though the organization offered to rehome them.
Read More at the Daily Fetched
