The Pet Protection and Safety Act of 1998 strengthens the Animal Welfare Act by prohibiting random source animal dealers from supplying dogs and cats to research laboratories. At the same time, the bill preserves the integrity of animal research by encouraging research laboratories to obtain animals from legitimate sources that comply with the Animal Welfare Act.
Medical research is an invaluable weapon in the battle against disease.
New drugs and surgical techniques offer promise in the fight against AIDS, cancer, and a host of life-threatening diseases. Animal research has been, and continues to be, fundamental to advancements in medicine. Random source dealers are known to keep hundreds of animals at a time in squalid conditions, providing them with little food or water. These four sources are capable of supplying millions of animals for research, far more cats and dogs than are required by current laboratory demand. The National Institutes of Health, in an effort to curb abuse and deception, has already adopted policies against the acquisition of dogs and cats from random source dealers.