Democratic lawmakers have reintroduced a new bill that would require Colorado animal testing facilities to offer test subjects, such as cats and dogs, to local shelters for adoption.

Senate Bill 085, sponsored by Sen. Cathy Kipp, D-Fort Collins and Reps. Manny Rutinel, D-Greenwood Village, and Amy Paschal, D-Colorado Springs, would require medical research facilities in Colorado that test on dogs and cats to offer the animals to local shelters when they are no longer being tested, with an exemption if the facility has its internal adoption program.

Last year’s iteration of the bill, Senate Bill 067, failed in committee.

SB 085 also requires facilities to submit an annual report to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment detailing the number of dogs and cats used for health-related research, the number transferred to a shelter or rescue, the name and address of those shelters, and the number adopted out internally.

Meredith Blanchard of the National Anti-Vivisection Society said 16 other states have some form of “post-research adoption” statutes. However, only one has a reporting requirement.

“We put these bills out there in hopes that they’re working, but we don’t actually know if the number of animals being adopted out is increasing after the legislation passes,” she said. “So, that’s why we’re trying to get it in there just to see if this is making a difference, and hopefully, we’ll get (the bill) through committee this year.”

Data from the USDA indicates that 602 dogs and 185 cats were used in medical research in Colorado in 2023 at facilities, including Colorado State University, Colorado Mountain College, and Bel-Rea Institute of Animal Technology.

According to Blanchard, many of these animals are euthanized so researchers can see the medication and vaccines’ effects on their organs. However, some dogs and cats are unnecessarily euthanized to save space and money, even though they are healthy, she said.

Those animals deserve a chance to get adopted into good homes, she said.

When asked if she had any worries about Colorado shelters’ capacity for taking in additional animals when many are already experiencing overcrowding, Blanchard said she spoke with the owner of an animal rescue last year who said he’d be ready to take dogs and cats the moment the bill is signed into law. 

“I think the capacity is out there, but it is a matter of making those relationships with the laboratories and having some sort of formal arrangement,” she said. 

Technological advances, such as artificial intelligence and organs on chips, mean fewer dogs and cats are being used as test subjects, Blanchard said, but implementation of these technologies has been slow. 

“The holdup that we’re seeing is the validation of these methods to actually make sure that they will do what is being expected of them, and in total transparency, with what’s going on at the federal level,” she said. “It’s a matter of getting those (technologies) more widely used, which is a big task because a lot of this research is happening in universities, where there’s that kind of institutional inertia of, ‘We’ve always done it this way.'”

She added: “But scientists are always looking for cheaper, faster ways to get their drugs and therapies on the market, and non-human technologies are going to be that way forward.”

Blanchard said may scientists worldwide refuse to use animal subjects in their research, especially dogs and cats. For some reason, Blanchard said, dogs and cats “sit on a higher seat in society than most animals.”

“The beagle that’s sitting in a steel cage for a vaccine test is the same dog that you have in your household and that you love unconditionally, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them a chance after they have involuntarily given their life in the pursuit of science,” she said.

The bill is set to be heard by the Senate Health & Human Services Committee on Feb. 27.