US

More Major Veterans’ Organizations Come Out In Support Of Animal Experimentation

Shutterstock/ InBetweentheBlinks

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Jonah Bennett Contributor
Font Size:

More top veterans’ service organizations have come out in support of animal experimentation at the Department of Veterans Affairs in the wake of reports showing abuse and poor care of puppies used for research purposes.

In a letter obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation and sent last Wednesday to the Senate Appropriations Committee, organizations such as Vietnam Veterans of America, Association of the US Navy, National Defense Committee, and Square Deal for Veterans argued that restricting or ending animal experimentation at the VA would have disastrous consequences.

For these organizations, stopping animal research would “condemn wounded and injured veterans to potentially lethal respiratory infections, increased harm from heart attacks, less ability to adequately manage diabetes side effects (such as eye damage, kidney failure, and amputations), and increased disability from strokes, and failed organ transplantation.”

The letter further argued against the PUPPERS Act and the almost identical version of the bill placed in the Minibus Appropriations Act, which has already been passed by the House. Democratic Rep. Dina Titus and Republican Rep. Dave Brat introduced PUPPERS in response to reports of animal abuse at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA. The Daily Caller News Foundation obtained a report from the VA’s Office of Research Oversight (ORO) in June establishing evidence of abuse and oversight failures regarding dog experimentation at the facility.

Separately, the major veterans’ service organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) also sent a letter Wednesday on behalf of its 400,000 members to the same committee, urging members of Congress to oppose the same legislation. While IAVA acknowledged that researchers at the Hunter Holmes McGuire medical center in Virginia failed to follow rules, the group stated that “there are mechanisms in place to remediate the situation an discipline those involved.”

In other words, IAVA does not believe that reports of animal abuse outweigh the potential benefits of animal experimentation for disabled veterans suffering from conditions that are currently difficult or impossible to treat within the existing medical paradigm.

VA Secretary David Shulkin wrote an op-ed in USA Today pointing out that medical organizations and other veterans’ groups believe that animal experimentation is the way forward. Shulkin noted that dog experimentation in particular is essential because of the physiological similarities between dogs and humans. Moreover, Shulkin pointed out that computer modeling in place of direct experimentation is not possible because those models depend on crucial biological and physiological information unavailable in the absence of these experiments.

Follow Jonah Bennett on Twitter

Send tips to jonah@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel