U.S. Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan this week announced that the U.S. Navy is terminating all testing on cats and dogs.
“Today it gives me great pleasure to terminate all Department of the Navy’s testing on cats and dogs, ending these inhumane practices and saving taxpayer dollars,” he said, deeming this “long overdue” and thanking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as well as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in “bringing this to light.”
Further, Phelan is also directing the Surgeon General of the Navy to “conduct a comprehensive review of all medical research programs to ensure they align with ethical guidelines, scientific necessity, and our core values of integrity and readiness,” he said in a video statement.
Today it gives me great pleasure to terminate all Department of the Navy's testing on cats and dogs, ending these inhumane practices and saving taxpayer dollars. This is long overdue. I commend @POTUS, @SecDef and @DOGE for bringing this to light. pic.twitter.com/joKRfuNbF4
— Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan (@SECNAV) May 27, 2025
This announcement comes as the Trump administration prioritizes ending cruel animal testing, much of which has been revealed by the taxpayer watchdog White Coat Waste Project over the years.
In March, for example, DOGE announced the cancellation of several National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants that were geared toward transgender experiments on animals.
Yesterday, @NIH cancelled seven grants for transgender experiments on animals including:
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) March 5, 2025
- $532K to “use a mouse model to investigate the effects of cross-sex testosterone treatment”
- $33K to test “feminizing hormone therapy in the male rat”
BREAKING🔥 @DOGE just cut millions in wasteful govt spending on disturbing & cruel transgender animal experiments exposed by WCW!
— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) March 5, 2025
👏Thank you DOGE, @elonmusk & @POTUS! https://t.co/7QLeXnfREz
As Breitbart News reported:
One of the grants, worth $299,940, was titled “Gender-Affirming Testosterone Therapy on Breast Cancer Risk and Treatment Outcomes” and used toward “transmasculine” animal experiments, in which female mice were administered testosterone and had their ovaries removed.
“This proposal will undertake preclinical studies to address breast cancer (BC) risk and treatment concerns of transmasculine people (female-to-male transition),” an abstract of the grant reads, noting that “most transmasculine individuals pursue testosterone therapy (TT) to treat their gender dysphoria.”
“The breast is a sex hormone-sensitive organ. Transmasculine individuals who receive TT are now a subject of concern – very little is known about how such high levels of testosterone affect the breast and subsequently risk of developing BC,” the summary asserts, adding that human studies of this subject are “decades” away.
In April, President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the direction of Administrator Lee Zeldin, announced plans to roll back animal testing, and in May, NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya announced the closure of the agency’s last remaining beagle experiment lab.
WATCH — Oversight Hearing on Cruelty in Animal Lab Testing — Transing Rats and Poisoning Puppies:
