For the last several years, Virginia Senator Jennifer Boysko has been advocating for animals trapped in laboratories by working to make it easier for members of the public to obtain information about animal research at state-funded facilities, like public universities. 

Her most recent, 2024 bill was modest in its requests, yet threatening enough to the animal research industry’s intentional and coveted opacity that the industry fought back hard. 

What was Senator Boysko asking for that drew the ire of industry? Only that taxpayer-funded animal research facilities tell the public the total number of animals used in their research and the percentage of their funds used for both animal and non-animal research. 

That’s all.

Unwilling to share even this most basic information with those who fund their work, the animal research industry – led by Virginia’s public universities – succeeded in getting the reporting of this information stalled. 

Per the amended bill, the state of Virginia must invest in the creation and facilitation of a task force to determine whether research facilities should be made to provide this information – i.e., whether research facilities should be made to answer the most elementary questions for their funders.

The task force’s first meeting took place on July 26, 2024, and was attended by 11 “citizen” members, including representatives of five of Virginia’s public universities. 

Discussion was anchored by specific prompts, but, true to form, animal research representatives did not answer the questions being asked – instead, they repeatedly betrayed their opposition to any real form of transparency even in theory, staying off point, talking out of both sides of their mouths, and repeating irrelevant talking points.

Animal research industry embarrassments “highlights” included:

• Virginia Commonwealth University accidentally admitting a desire for secrecy and being confused about animals in general. The university’s representative stated that animal researchers are “not trying to obfuscate what [they]’re doing” before immediately – and unintentionally? – admitting that they are actually doing just that (i.e., have a need to preserve secrecy). This same representative – who identified himself as a medical doctor – later conceded confusion about how to count animals and asked when a vertebrate actually becomes a vertebrate (i.e., is it at birth)?
• University of Virginia pretending not to understand the concept of “transparency” but fearing and opposing it anyway. The university’s representative first (and repeatedly) argued that universities already report “quite a bit” and “provide quite a lot” to various bodies and that the public should be told to shut up and accept this limited information educated on how to access the information that is already being reported (even though it does not include the information sought by Senator Boysko); then, and on second thought(?), he questioned the meaning of “transparency” and suggested that the public be polled. He did, however, display a firm grasp of what does not constitute transparency – admitting that, even if the universities already have the numbers the public wants, they don’t just want to “give out numbers” because doing so could “negatively impact” them. (Apparently, universities believe that telling their funders – i.e., the taxpayers – what they’re funding is bad and scary and . . . just, no.)
• James Madison University wanting to stay away from “dangerous” numbers and, instead, concoct and share happy stories. As if forgetting that she is supposed to be defending “science”, which often relies on numerical data, this university’s representative argued that numbers “don’t say what’s actually happening”. She did not, of course, address how a university accurately reporting the use of X number of animals does not tell the public at least some of what is actually “happening”. But no matter, because this representative voiced a preference for not reporting what the elected officials want at all and, instead, highlighting things like scientific findings (ostensibly to distract from its torture of animals and waste of taxpayer dollars).

So, it’s clear that – because of the power of the animal research industry –  we the public are now not only paying for Virginia’s public universities to kill animals, but we’re also paying for them to lie to us and waste our time. Let us join together in an effort to make this worthwhile by helping to ensure that the task force determines a need for greater transparency and accountability in Virginia animal research.

If you are a Virginia resident, please contact Senator Jennifer Boysko to thank her for her work and tell her that you want to see greater transparency in animal research, including by requiring that state-funded universities provide to the public the information outlined in the original version of her 2024 bill and that she identified at the task force meeting.. 

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