Huge Win for Animal Lovers: National Health Institute bans the use of “Randomly Sourced Dogs” in animal testing

We're thrilled to share some good news for dog lovers. Thanks to the advocacy work of organizations like the Humane Society of the United States, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has banned the practice of funding research that uses randomly sourced dogs for animal testing. This is a huge win for animal rights, and we want to applaud the HSUS for their ongoing efforts in this cause. The president of the HSUS, Wayne Pacelle has shared the following on the victory:

From Wayne Pacelle's Blog (http://blog.humanesociety.org/wayne/) on October 1, 2014:

Many readers know that the issue of random source “Class B” dog and cat dealers is one that our founders confronted in the earliest days of The HSUS. We’ve consistently worked through the years to put an end to the practice of dealers rounding up dogs and cats from random sources – whether flea markets, animal shelters, auctions, animal thieves or even pet owners — and selling them to research laboratories. It’s been a long, frustrating and difficult slog to stop this mischief and abuse.

In the 1960s as many as two million animals languished in the random source pipeline. Today, we are down to three random source Class B dog and cat dealers, and one is under investigation by the USDA. Photo: The HSUS
But as with so many issues we deal with, persistence pays dividends, and today marks a major milestone. As of October 1, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the largest funder of biomedical research in the world, will no longer fund research that involves dogs from random source Class B dealers. A similar policy regarding cats was adopted in 2012. We thank NIH for its work to institute this policy and we welcome this step forward. We also thank the many other organizations who devoted their energies to achieving this important milestone, including Last Chance for Animals and the Animal Welfare Institute.

The NIH decision followed a 2009 report released by the National Academy of Sciences that determined that Class B dealers are unnecessary for federally-funded research and that the regulations for these dealers simply can’t ensure that people’s pets won’t end up in labs.  It was work by animal advocates, the introduction of federal legislation on the subject, and a request from Congress that led to the formal study of this issue – as also happened with the finding by the Institute of Medicine that chimpanzees were no longer necessary for biomedical research. That finding also led to a dramatic shift in NIH policy…READ MORE

To read Wayne's full blog post on this win for animal protection, click here. 

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