366 A Phillips and A Bellotti Tom Regan has also published on the benefits and harm of vivisection and how there are insufficient legal protections for the animals: The very best that can be said for vivisection (and it is very little) is that some people sometimes benefit from using some medicines or some procedures that were first either given to or used on animals And for this hundreds of billions of dollars are spent; hundreds of millions of animals are denied their freedom, are subjected to debilitating physical injury, are made to suffer, only to be killed in the end; and uncounted millions of human beings are harmed in ways both minor and major, even to the point of death Vivisection as it is practiced today is not the panecea for the world’s ills its champions would have us believe; it poses a very serious threat both to humans and animals (Regan 2016) Regan has called for the criminalization of vivisection Those in favor of animal experimentation (even on shelter cats and dogs) focus on advances in medical research, product safety, and training future doctors, veterinarians, and clinicians Those who oppose focus on advances in science to more accurate non-animal models, that animals are not good models for human illnesses, and the welfare and humane treatment of the animal subjects By some estimates, upwards of 500 million animals are killed in US laboratories every year (APHIS 2000) While the use of cats and dogs (particularly shelter cats and dogs) in experimentation has declined drastically in recent years (NAS 2009), we think it has been primarily due to advocacy and pressure from citizens and communities rather than from laboratories concluding that their animal-based experiments have not been successful It is unknown how many shelter animals are sold into the world of experimentation because most states not track shelter intake and disposition records These once-family pets are subjected to experimentation that often ends in death The experimentation can be for cosmetic testing, human or animal drug testing, medical technique or tool testing, biochemical testing, and much more The USA and other countries still allow, promote, fund, and incentivize the harm to animals, including shelter pets and former family pets, all in the name of scientific research and education As taxpayers and voters become more aware of the consequences and pitfalls of animal experiments, particularly on those cats and dogs found in animal shelters, advocacy for change has increased This chapter will outline how shelter cats and dogs are used in research, the prevalence of animals (including shelter pets) used in research, laws attempting to protect animals in research, the controversy of Class B dealers brokering shelter animals for research, government funding of animal research, and advocacy to end this practice for the wellbeing of human and animal health