CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Advocacy group the White Coat Waste Project is now running national television advertisements targeting the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for use of dogs in experiments.
The organization posted billboards in Cleveland earlier this year with captions reading "Prisoners of Waste, Stokes VA Medical Center, Stop Taxpayer-Funded Animal Experiments!"
And the White Coat Waste Project sued the Cleveland VA, along with other locations, for records pertaining to testing on dogs at the center. It's still going through federal court.
The Cleveland VA does test on dogs, Kristin Parker, chief of external affairs for the Northeast Ohio VA Healthcare System, previously told cleveland.com.
More specifically, most experiments on animals involve rodents, but the Cleveland VA uses dogs to examine ways to prevent potentially fatal lung infections in veterans living with spinal cord injuries, paralysis from stroke, or amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Parker said the VA uses dogs only when rodent physiology can't provide necessary information.
Legislators wrote language into a spending bill to stop the VA from spending money on "painful" experiments on dogs, which some medical organizations are lobbying against.
The ad will run in Cleveland this weekend on channels including CNN, ESPN and Fox News, according to the White Coat Waste Project.
Watch the advertisement above.