Justin Goodman: Taxpayer Funded Torture

Justin Goodman is the Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy at White Coat Waste Project, a two and a half million member, taxpayer watchdog group that is working to end twenty billion dollars in taxpayer funded animal experiments.

Justin and I met in D C in February, pre-social distancing. And, it just so happened that on the very morning that we met, White Coat had released footage of National Institute of Health experiments that had been going on for decades. It was a gift for me to be with Justin before and after this interview, and to watch his phone blow up from half of Capitol Hill in reaction to the horrifying footage. I felt like I had front row seats to seeing how effective and powerful White Coat Waste Project is.

And since we met, they’ve had another huge victory: A couple of weeks ago, White Coat exposed how the National Institutes for Health has spent millions of tax dollars funding dangerous coronavirus animal tests at the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology and just one week after they released their international exposé–Trump promised he’d end the government’s funding of dangerous, cruel and wasteful animal experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology!

And, today is World Day for Laboratory Animals – so, please think about them during this (relatively) short stint in quarantine. They are in it for life, in tiny cages, being tested on and tortured, and almost all of them will never know the sun, the wind, the grass, what it feels like to run, explore, adventure, and discover; nor will they experience life with other animals, to be a part of a herd, a troop, a flock, or a family. Count your blessings and please, stop paying for their abuse.