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In a moment of “Why wasn’t this already a thing?” the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has finally created its first policy that will allow animals that have been tested on in lab experiments to be adopted by animal sanctuaries and shelters after the barbaric and unnecessary testing ends.

For those who survive these cruel and unnecessary experiments, they will finally get a second chance to live free of the fear and pain they’ve always known. They will get some measure of justice in the arms of those who will love and care for them.

Before this recently enacted new policy all previously animals used for experiments were euthanized immediately after their use was concluded giving them no chance for a better life.

Pressure from groups like The White Coat Waste Project (WCW) convinced the FDA to give a real retirement to healthy rabbits, guinea pigs, cats, dogs and even “farm animals” that have survived these abuses in the name of misplaced scientific advancement.

Similar policies have already been put into practice by the Department of Veteran Affairs and The National Institutes of Health to retire “service” animals used in war and experimented on animals in the UK.

This policy has been decades in the making and milestones like the 2018 release of 26 squirrel monkeys that were rescued and retired from an FDA lab where nicotine testing was a daily abuse that occurred.

Those primates were the first ever to be relinquished from an FDA lab thanks to pressure from legendary primatologist Jane Goodall and the WCW itself.

“On behalf of the 1.2 million WCW advocates who urged the agency to take action, we applaud the FDA for creating a policy allowing primates, dogs, and other animals purchased with tax dollars to be retired from federal labs when testing ends,” WCW President Justin Goodman said. “Taxpayers bought these animals, and they want Uncle Sam to give them back.”

Last year the United States Congress introduced an act called the Animal Freedom from Testing, Experiments, and Research (AFTER) Act that introduces retirement for lab-tested animals in all agencies of the U.S. government.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a report earlier this week that reveals 780,070 primates, dogs, and cats, in addition to an undisclosed tens of millions of other animals such as rats, mice, fish, and birds, were used in experiments in 2018 and 56,031 animals were used in experiments without any pain relief.

“For years, I’ve worked to end outdated government animal testing opposed by most Americans, and have been disturbed at how many animals are killed at the end of research even though there are individuals, rescues, and sanctuaries ready to take them in,” US Representative Brendan Boyle (D-PA), an AFTER Act co-sponsor, said.

“Having introduced the AFTER Act to require federal agencies to allow lab animal adoption, I am very happy with the FDA’s new policy allowing healthy dogs, primates, rabbits, and other animals to be retired after research. I’ll continue to champion this issue to ensure that as many animals as possible get a second chance at a full and happy life outside of government labs.” He continued.

While we haven’t won the war to end animal testing at least we can now offer the victims of this barbaric and ludicrous industry some solace in a new life filled with love and kindness. We can also tell these animals stories to all who will listen and show what happened to these unique individuals behind closed walls for no sound scientific reason.

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