Animal-rights activists marched through Emeryville Saturday, stopping outside Novartis’ research facility on Horton Street before continuing through the Public Market and Bay Street to protest the use of dogs and cats in biomedical research and call for passage of a federal bill restricting government funding for such research.
The demonstration, organized by animal-rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), came three days after the introduction of the Companion Animal Protection Against Cruel Testing Act, or COMPACT Act, in Congress.
The bipartisan bill, H.R. 10522, would prohibit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies from using federal funds for biomedical research involving live dogs and cats. It was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Sept. 21.
Participants carried signs reading “Save the Dogs,” distributed hundreds of leaflets urging California members of Congress to co-sponsor the legislation and were accompanied by several rescued laboratory beagles.
“For years, investigators have risked their personal freedom to expose the horrors of the dog experimentation industry and rescue the animals,” said DxE Lead Organizer Almira Tanner in a statement published on IndyBay.org. “We are grateful that legislation is catching up to public sentiment, and we are hopeful that the COMPACT Act is the first step to ending all animal experimentation.”
The Novartis Connection
Novartis was targeted in part because the pharmaceutical company openly acknowledges conducting animal research as part of drug discovery and development. On its animal-research webpage, Novartis says animal research remains necessary in some areas and reports annually on animals involved in studies at its own research sites. Globally, the company reported 294,325 animals involved in internally conducted studies in 2024. Novartis does not publicly break down its animal-research figures by facility, so the company’s global total does not establish that dogs or cats are being used in experiments at the Emeryville site.
Novartis’ footprint in Emeryville has been substantially reduced since selling its former campus to BioMed Realty in 2019 and moving its remaining employees to EmeryStation West. The company is now further reducing its local presence as it consolidates some West Coast research operations in San Diego.
Emeryville has a long history of being targeted by animal-rights activists, including the 2003 bombing of the Chiron Life Science Center, which was then located at the site later acquired by Novartis. The FBI identifies Daniel Andreas San Diego as a suspect in the bombing. San Diego remained a fugitive for more than two decades before being arrested in Wales in 2024 and is facing extradition to the United States.
The Emeryville IKEA was the site of a 2018 peaceful protest by the activist group over the retailer’s sale of sheep and cowhide products.
Animal Testing in Drug Development
Animal studies can play several roles during drug development, including examining a potential drug’s toxicity, effects on organs and biological systems, and how it is absorbed, distributed and metabolized before it is tested in humans.
Novartis says it supports replacing animals with non-animal alternatives “wherever feasible,” while maintaining that animal research remains necessary for some medicines. The company says animal studies may be required by regulatory authorities for some medicines.
The regulatory landscape is changing, however. The FDA has been encouraging alternatives including human-cell models, organoids, organs-on-chips and computer modeling, and in 2026 took additional steps to allow scientifically appropriate non-animal methods to play a larger role in drug development. The agency also acknowledges that alternatives are not yet available or validated for every type of medical product, according to its guidance on animal welfare and alternative testing methods.
The push to reduce animal research also has support within the Trump administration. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said HHS will work to “end unnecessary animal testing,” while HHS agencies under his leadership have launched more than 20 initiatives to expand human-based research and reduce reliance on animal models. The NIH closed its last on-campus beagle laboratory in 2025, and the agency has since expanded funding and infrastructure for alternatives including human organoids, tissue models and computer-based approaches. HHS announced the initiatives Sept. 21.
For DxE, the issue goes beyond federal funding. The group advocates ending animal experimentation altogether and views the COMPACT Act as a potential first step toward that goal.
Saturday’s demonstration was part of a nationwide day of protests against animal testing, according to DxE. Demonstrations were also held in San Diego, Massachusetts and upstate New York, where the group said hundreds of people protested at Marshall BioResources, which it described as one of the last remaining major U.S. breeders and suppliers of dogs for biomedical research.
I am so glad that the predetermined killing of dogs, cats and other domestic animals is finding a way into the public conscience! It accounts for only a small percentage of the massive killing, unspeakable pain and suffering we inflict upon animals in the countless slaughterhouses of our country and throughout the world. This blessed group of people go into local slaughterhouses and try to save the sick and dying chickens, cows, lambs, turkeys, and pigs that are born into the pure hell of the slaughterhouse cage. The giant corporations who own these slaughterhouse facilities are the same ones that provide laboratory animals. This is about the commodification of animals which ultimately leads to the commodification of human beings. Until we care for the living beings we see around us we will have no real empathy for each other.