Your Questions Answered

  1. 1. Are you trying to ban all animal experiments?

    We don’t want to ban a single thing. Our work is focused on stopping taxpayers from being forced to pay for more than $15 billion in animal experimentation that a majority of Americans oppose and even the agencies funding the work admit is expensive, wasteful and irrelevant. Uncle Sam outspends the private sector more than 2-to-1 on animal experimentation, so cutting this reckless government spending addresses the main source of the U.S.’s animal testing problem.

     

    Right now, there are animal experimentation projects that taxpayers have funded for decades without any benefit to public health. They continue to rake in millions of dollars each year because there is currently little accountability and transparency and no incentives to innovate. Conversely, the private sector–with its focus on return-on-investment–cannot afford to waste time and billions of dollars on useless research. That’s why Big Pharma and others are responsible for most medical innovations and are heavily investing in high-tech alternatives to animal testing that can deliver better results for human health faster and for a lot less money.

  2. 2. Are you bipartisan?

    Yes, we’re a big tent coalition that welcomes anyone from across the political spectrum who opposes wasteful government spending on animal experiments. 

  3. 3. Are you concerned with wasteful spending or animal cruelty?

    We believe they go hand in hand: the overwhelming majority of waste and abuse in U.S. animal laboratories is the result of billions in reckless government spending with little transparency and accountability to taxpayers and lawmakers. Exposing and ending wasteful government spending stops this abuse.

  4. 4. If we cut animal experiments how will we develop cures to diseases?

    Animal experiments are inefficient, wasteful and rarely improve human health. The NIH, FDA and other agencies report that more than 90% of drugs that pass animal tests fail in human trials because they don’t work or are dangerous. Each drug represents about a decade of wasted time and $2 billion down the drain. In its 2016-2020 Strategic Plan, the NIH writes, “animal models often fail to provide good ways to mimic disease or predict how drugs will work in humans, resulting in much wasted time and money while patients wait for therapies.” Yet, NIH continues to dedicate 47% of its $32 billion budget each year to animal experiments that are a proven failure. 

     

    Redirecting resources to public health programs, human clinical research and modern technologies like “organs-on-a-chip” will save billions of taxpayers’ dollars and millions of animals’ lives.

  5. 5. Can’t I just boycott products tested on animals?

    Sadly, no. While buying cruelty-free cosmetics and household products is a good start, the overwhelming majority of animal experimentation in the U.S. is being done in federally-funded laboratories that are not involved in consumer product development. This is why addressing the federal spending problem is the way to stop most animal experimentation.

  6. 6. How can I get involved or help?

    There are many ways you can help White Coat Waste Project stop taxpayer-funded animal experiments:

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