Right now in Michigan, dogs are still being used in painful medical research — often in ways that cause severe suffering and offer little scientific benefit.

A bipartisan bill in the Michigan House of Representatives would finally change that.

This bill would ban all medical research on dogs that causes pain or distress, ending practices that have been condemned by both scientists and animal advocates as cruel, outdated, and unnecessary. It’s especially aimed at research still being conducted at Wayne State University, where beagles have been used for cardiovascular experiments that some experts call fruitless and inhumane.

Over 60,000 dogs are used in U.S. research labs each year. And while many institutions have moved on to more humane and effective research methods — such as computer modeling, human cell cultures, and advanced imaging — some still rely on outdated practices that involve cutting into or chemically inducing disease in live dogs.

Michigan can be a national leader by saying: we don’t hurt dogs to make medical progress.

Veterinarians, researchers, and animal welfare organizations have testified that these dog-based experiments don’t produce results that reliably translate to human medicine — and often waste public funding. Meanwhile, survivors of the system, like Finley the beagle (rescued from the notorious Envigo facility), are proof that dogs bred for research deserve a second chance — not a lifetime in a lab cage.

We, the undersigned, urge the Michigan House Committee on Regulatory Reform and state lawmakers to:

• Vote to pass this ban on painful or distress-causing medical research on dogs
• Redirect funding toward modern, non-animal research methods
• Guarantee adoption pathways for any remaining research dogs in state institutions
   

There are better ways to advance science — and no justification for forcing dogs to suffer in the name of medicine. Michigan voters, scientists, and taxpayers overwhelmingly support humane alternatives.

Let’s make this the last generation of dogs to suffer in Michigan labs.

Sign now to support the bill — and ensure that compassion, not cruelty, defines the future of medical research in our state.