--- title: Bill Could Give Federal Lab Animals a Chance at a New Home description: A new bill would require all Federal agencies to have a policy for having lab animals adopted or retired if they're not needed for research. canonical: https://time.com/5639473/laboratory-animals-bill/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-30T23:02:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T00:07:26.644Z article:section: Politics og:title: Senate Bill Could Save Many Federal Lab Animals' Lives and Give Them a New Home og:description: About 50,000 regulated animals were in federal labs last year og:url: https://time.com/5639473/laboratory-animals-bill/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt00e9f43c05f2ccb4/698a00a3656a3f52d9bd8a95/beagle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2005 og:image:height: 1128 og:image:alt: Beagle og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Senate Bill Could Save Many Federal Lab Animals' Lives and Give Them a New Home twitter:description: About 50,000 regulated animals were in federal labs last year twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt00e9f43c05f2ccb4/698a00a3656a3f52d9bd8a95/beagle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Senate Bill Could Save Many Federal Lab Animals' Lives and Give Them a New Home > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=04839ff0-2ae9-400a-af23-ad138fe4b72d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Jul 30, 2019 11:02 PM UTC  A Beagle in a cage A Beagle in a cage MichaelSvoboda—Getty Images  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Jul 30, 2019 11:02 PM UTC Many dogs, cats, primates and other research animals are killed in federal laboratories each year because agencies don’t have a policy that allows animals to find new homes after their testing has finished. That could change under a new bill. A bipartisan group of senators introduced the Animal Freedom from Testing, Experimentation and Research [(AFTER) Act](https://www.collins.senate.gov/sites/default/files/AFTER%20ACT%20final.pdf) on Tuesday, which would require that any U.S. agency with a federal research facility to create a policy to “facilitate and encourage the adoption” of animals that are no longer needed for research. The bill outlines that animals no longer needed by research facilities and that a veterinarian finds to be “mentally and physically healthy” would be placed with an with a animal rescue group, animal sanctuary or shelter, or given it to someone who wants to keep them as a pet. The bill would impact species covered by the Animal Welfare Act, which regulates the treatment of warm-blooded animals except for mice, rats and birds. Last year, about 50,000 animals protected by the Act – mostly dogs, cats, primates and rabbits – were being held in federal labs. The legislation was introduced by two Republicans and two Democrats – Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Martha McSally of Arizona, Gary Peters of Michigan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. Several animal rights organizations have voiced support for the proposal. The [White Coat Waste Project](https://time.com/5555118/kitten-cannibalism-usda/), which opposes federal animal testing, applauded the bill. “On behalf of our more than 2 million members in Maine, Michigan, Arizona, New Hampshire and beyond, we applaud Senators Collins, Peters, McSally and Shaheen for introducing the AFTER Act to ensure dogs, cats, primates and other animals get a second chance at life outside of a lab when government experiments end,” said Bellotti ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5639473/laboratory-animals-bill/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5639473/laboratory-animals-bill/"},"headline":"Senate Bill Could Save Many Federal Lab Animals' Lives and Give Them a New Home","datePublished":"2019-07-30T23:02:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T00:07:26.644Z","description":"About 50,000 regulated animals were in federal labs last year","url":"https://time.com/5639473/laboratory-animals-bill/","keywords":["Senate","animals","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt00e9f43c05f2ccb4/698a00a3656a3f52d9bd8a95/beagle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara Law","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-law/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt00e9f43c05f2ccb4/698a00a3656a3f52d9bd8a95/beagle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Beagle","caption":"Beagle","creditText":"MichaelSvoboda—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/senate/","name":"Senate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5639473/laboratory-animals-bill/","name":"Senate Bill Could Save Many Federal Lab Animals' Lives and Give Them a New Home"}}]}] ```