After news broke that the U.S. government is funding a multi-million dollar facility in southern Nebraska with the main purpose of experimenting on animals for the meat industry, people across the country were outraged. The animals being held in the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center have been subjected to cruel and reckless tests that are aimed at making these animals more “profitable” to the meat industry.

Some of the experiments carried out there involve genetically modifying pigs and cows to produce more offspring than normal, or seeing how many times a cow could be bred before her body literally breaks down. Due to a loophole in the Animal Welfare Act, the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center has been able to carry out operations without having to adhere to any sort of animal welfare standards. Thousands of animals have succumb to inhumane and twisted deaths at this facility and once people recognized that their tax dollars are what make it all possible, opposition to this facility grew exponentially.

Thankfully, after countless individuals and animal welfare organizations sent out petitions to their local government representatives to shut down this sick research center, action is finally being taken. Federal lawmakers across parties have proposed a bill that would require the facility to afford the animals in their care with the protections they deserve.

Introduced by U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-OR; Mike Fitzpatrick, R-PA; Vern Buchanan, R-FL; Louise Slaughter, D-NY; and Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, the proposed legislation, called the AWARE Act, would amend the Animal Welfare Act to remove current exceptions that exclude animals used in agricultural experiments at federally-run facilities from certain protections.

We could not be more thrilled to see legislators from both parties working together to help end the atrocities that have been wrought on the animals at this facility for far too long and sincerely hope it is enacted into law soon.

Image source: Murlio Cardoso/Flickr