As we know, the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) – the only piece of federal legislation that addresses the use of other-than-human animals in research – defines “animal” to exclude over 99% of all animals used for experimentation in the U.S.

Efforts to expand this definition have failed multiple times, but, now, a new effort is underway. 

U.S. Representative Betty McCollum (MN-4) has introduced a federal bill aimed at extending the AWA’s scope beyond a minute subset of warm-blooded animals.  

Representative McCollum is sponsoring the Cold-blood Animal Research and Exhibition (CARE) Act (H.R. 9571), which would revise the Animal Welfare Act’s definition of “animal”.

Specifically, the bill would amend the AWA’s definition of “animal” to include cold-blooded animals and, thereby, render the AWA applicable to cephalopods, fish, reptiles, and amphibians used in research, testing, and experimentation (as well as for exhibition). 

This would bring at least tens of millions of human experimental subjects within the AWA’s scope, including the second most common laboratory victim: fish. 

The CARE Act has been referred to the House Committee on Agriculture, and it is critical that we voice support for it . . . because, even though the AWA does not meaningfully protect animals from human harm, the federal recognition of sentient beings as “animals” is critically important.

Please reach out to your Representatives, especially if they sit on the House Agriculture Committee (!), and let them know that you support the CARE Act and want them to do the same!

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