Navy Secretary John Phelan announced the service will eliminate research testing on cats and dogs. Phelan is seen testifying Feb. 27, 2025, during his Senate confirmation hearing. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — The Navy announced the termination of all research testing on cats and dogs, after facing increased pressure from lawmakers and animal rights groups.
Calling the end to the experiments long overdue, Navy Secretary John Phelan has ordered the service surgeon general to review all medical research programs to ensure they align with ethical practices and “true scientific necessity.”
“It gives me great pleasure to terminate all Department of the Navy’s testing on cats and dogs, ending these inhumane practices and saving taxpayer dollars,” Phelan said on social media.
The Navy secretary thanked the administration of President Donald Trump, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the Department of Government Efficiency for vetting and ending contracts that fund experiments on dogs and cats.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, was among lawmakers who congratulated the Navy for ending the studies. Ernst recently has opposed the U.S. continuing to fund testing on cats and dogs in other nations, including China.
“This is a taxpayer-funded problem,” said Anthony Bellotti, president of the White Coat Waste Project, a nonprofit watchdog that tracks animal testing by federal agencies.
The group estimated the federal government spends $20 billion annually on research studies using dog and cats as test subjects.
The end to the Navy’s tests followed a recent social media campaign by activist Laura Loomer of Florida against the federal government conducting studies using cats and dogs.
Loomer, who has ties to Trump, has a podcast called “Loomer Unleashed” that she used to share information on experiments that White Coat Waste Project said it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
“President Trump is helping ensure funding is not allowed any longer. He is receptive to ending these contracts,” Loomer said this week on her podcast.
The Trump administration earlier this month pulled the plug on a $10 million study funded by the Defense Department that involved giving electroshocks to cats in experiments on constipation and incontinence, according to White Coat Waste Project.
Justin Goodman, senior vice president for advocacy and public policy at White Coat Waste Project, said the study was dropped, after Loomer and Elon Musk objected to the tests. Lawmakers also objected to them.
He said the Navy then moved this week to eliminate experiments using dogs and cats.
“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for pet abuse in Navy-funded labs,” Goodman said.
The animal rights group PETA praised the Navy’s elimination of testing using dogs and cats. But it also urged additional restrictions, including a ban on the use of dogs, cats, nonhuman primates, marine animals and other animals “currently permitted in Army weapon-wounding tests.”
The animal rights group also pressed for an end to Defense Department funding animal tests at foreign institutions.
In a letter sent to Hegseth on Thursday, PETA recommended the Defense Department identify and modernize effective research methods that use innovative technologies that save money and do not involve animals as test subjects.
PETA said technologies include high-fidelity, human-patient simulators, advanced computational models and human tissue-based platforms “that deliver high-quality data at lower cost and save animals’ lives.”
