Right now, federal tax dollars help pay for experiments on dogs and cats, the same animals millions of Americans treat as family. Congress has a real chance to change that, and I'm asking our representatives to pass the Companion Animal Protection Against Cruel Testing (COMPACT) Act, H.R. 10522.

The bill would stop the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from funding experiments on live dogs and cats. It was introduced by Rep. Nick Langworthy, a Republican from New York, and Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat from Wisconsin, and it already has co-sponsors from both parties. "This is a nonpartisan issue," said Rep. Pocan.

The numbers are hard to look away from. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection reports counted 42,026 dogs, almost all of them beagles, and 12,632 cats that were used in medical testing or kept for it in 2025. One lab dog breeder in upstate New York, Marshall BioResources, holds roughly 16,000 beagles, according to the animal protection groups backing the bill.

The science is moving on, too. Dogs and cats are different from people in their genes, their bodies, and how they process medicine, so results from these tests don't always apply to humans. Newer tools, like organs-on-a-chip and computer modeling, can study human biology more directly. HHS just announced 20 new efforts to reduce animal use in the research it pays for, and Congress already removed an old rule that forced drug makers to test new medicines on animals.

It's rare to see Republicans, Democrats, and federal health leaders pointing in the same direction. Dogs and cats shouldn't be left out of this progress.

Sign the petition to tell Congress to pass the COMPACT Act now, while the momentum is on our side.