PUPPERS ACT

A Florida congressman’s efforts to prevent the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from experimenting on animals continue as he paired with a congresswoman from Nevada on a new bill.

At the start of 2019, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., who sits on the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee and lost both his legs during his service in Afghanistan, teamed up with U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., to unveil the “Preventing Unkind and Painful Procedures and Experiments on Respected Species (PUPPERS) Act”  which “will put an end to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ practice of performing painful and distressing experiments on dogs, including drilling into dogs’ skulls, inducing heart attacks, and collapsing their lungs.” 

The proposal was rolled into federal appropriations bills passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump at the end of last year which included efforts to “eliminate or reduce the research conducted using canines, felines, or non-human primates by not later than five years after the date of the enactment of this act.”

Mast’s and Titus’ proposal prohibited the VA from purchasing, breeding, transporting, housing, feeding, maintaining, disposing of or experimenting on dogs as part of the conduct of any study that causes significant pain or distress.”

Mast and Titus reeled in the support of a number of different groups including AMVETS, American Military Retirees Association, DisabledVeterans.org, American Humane Society and the White Coat Waste Project. 

https://www.floridadaily.com/brian-mast-dina-titus-team-up-to-end-va-experiments-on-cats/