In December of 2023, Teddy's Law was signed by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
It was named after a beagle who was tested on at a facility just outside of Kalamazoo owned by Charles River Laboratories.
Teddy's story was revealed by an undercover report published by the Humane Society of the United States, now known as Humane World for Animals.
Teddy would later be adopted, and his namesake law hoped to allow other laboratory cats and dogs in the state this same option before they are euthanized, with it requiring labs to offer these animals up for adoption after they’re done testing on them.
But this is only verified by an annual report stating whether a facility tests on cats and dogs, and if so, whether they offered them for adoption after they were no longer needed.
Mitchell Nelson is the Michigan director for Humane World for Animals.
He said Teddy’s Law was originally supposed to require facilities to also report the total number of dogs and cats they own, use and release, but by the time the bill passed, these requirements were removed.
"What we would really like to see is just, you know, make sure that everything's being accounted for, that there's transparency to make sure that the intent of this law is really being seen through and followed.”
Nelson added his group is backing a bill that hopes to restore these reporting requirements.
Senate Bill 223 was introduced in April of last year by Democratic State Senator Dayna Polehanki of Livonia, but it hasn’t moved at all since June.
Although, Polehanki said that doesn’t mean the bill is dead.
“I'm going to be looking for a legislator on the opposite side of the aisle to work with and perhaps split this up into a couple different bills because we're in divided government right now. So, a bill is much more likely to pass if it's a bill package and you have one Democrat and one Republican supporting the legislation.”
And she added that she’s optimistic she’ll be able to find a Republican backer, as she said President Trump’s administration has been pushing against animal testing.
“I'll give them credit. They're kind of leading on this and it's one thing I can agree with. And so that's what's changed. So, I do think there will be more of a chance that my Republican colleagues might get on board with something like this.”
But Polehanki said there's still one major obstacle for the bill; lobbyists advocating on behalf of state laboratories.
"They go around to all the legislators, especially ones on the relevant committees and fight for their position. A lot of it I think is not accurate," Polehanki said.
"It's a lot of scare tactics in my opinion like, 'Our whole lab, you know, all these employees will be out of jobs,' and things like that. But I think those those arguments experiments are thinning out as the years progress and people are really starting to take a stand on this."
However, Polehanki said she is remaining optimistic, even though she feels disheartened by how difficult it is to get a bill like this passed.
"Sometimes I lose sleep at night over this. So, you know, all you can do is keep moving and hope that opinions change and tides change and I think we have a good shot at this. I'm never ever going to stop trying."
In an email to WMUK, Charles River Laboratories stated that it rehomed 107 laboratory dogs and cats in 2025, but when asked how many they put down, Charles River did not respond.
MichBio, a bioscience trade association that advocates on behalf of research facilities in the state, did not reply to a request to comment by deadline.
Michael Symonds reports for WMUK through the Report for America national service program.
