Detroit Lions tight end Brock Wright and his fiancée Carley Johnston are urging Michigan’s top lawmakers to approve legislation that would ban painful experiments on dogs at taxpayer-funded institutions, joining a growing push that has already drawn support from Wright’s teammate Sam LaPorta and several high-profile Michigan natives.
In a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks and House Speaker Matt Hall, Wright and Johnston wrote that the LaPortas “aren’t the only members of the Lions family who support this important legislation,” according to a news release from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a medical ethics nonprofit advocating for the bills.
Also calling for action is director and actor Alison Eastwood, the daughter of Clint Eastwood, who sent a separate letter to Brinks and Hall urging them to advance the proposal, the group said.
The package of bills, known as Queenie’s Law, would prohibit public bodies, including universities, in Michigan from conducting research or training on dogs “in a manner that causes pain or distress.”
The House version, HB 4254, was introduced by Rep. Joe Aragona, a Republican from Clinton Township, while the Senate version, SB 127, was introduced by Sen. Paul Wojno, a Democrat from Warren.
Supporters say the legislation is needed because Michigan taxpayers are helping bankroll cruel and invasive canine experiments, including research at Wayne State University that critics say has continued for decades without producing any meaningful results. In April, a billboard campaign in Lansing and Detroit renewed attention on the issue, with signs featuring a beagle and the message: “$15 Million Wasted on Wayne State’s Dog Experiments? ENOUGH. Pass Queenie’s Law!”
Since 1991, the National Institutes of Health has spent about $15 million on Wayne State’s canine research, the Physicians Committee has said, arguing the work has produced no usable results. The group has pointed to public records describing surgeries in which dogs’ chest cavities are opened and devices, wires, and catheters are inserted into their hearts, with implanted devices used to induce heart failure. Critics say the dogs are later forced to run on treadmills while researchers monitor their conditions, and that all of the animals ultimately die, either from the experiments or complications.
“Anyone who has a dog at home would be shocked to learn of the deadly experiments occurring inside public labs—and what’s equally shocking is how unnecessary those experiments are,” Wright and Johnston wrote in their letter, according to the news release. “Cutting edge, human-relevant research means there is no reason to harm and kill dogs to improve public health.”
Ryan Merkley, the Physicians Committee’s director of research advocacy, said the endorsements from Wright and Johnston add momentum to what the group calls a common-sense, bipartisan effort.
“Dogs in Michigan’s taxpayer-funded labs are lucky to have Brock and Carley on their side,” Merkley said. “Voters shouldn’t be forced to pay for painful, dead-end experiments.”
The organization and a Royal Oak-based animal rescue group, Happy Paws Haven, worked with Wright and Johnston on the letter, the Physicians Committee said.
The latest round of advocacy follows a similar push from LaPorta and his wife Callie, who backed the bills in November and urged Brinks and Hall to advance them. The proposed ban has also been endorsed by Michigan actors Lily Tomlin and Ernie Hudson, who previously appeared in a TV ad supporting the legislation and sent their own letter to legislative leaders.
The legislation has already cleared one hurdle in the House. In late October, the House Regulatory Reform Committee voted overwhelmingly to advance HB 4254, with no votes against. The bill was later referred to the House Rules Committee, while the Senate version has remained in committee.
Opponents, including some research and business groups, have warned the bills could hinder biomedical research and harm Michigan’s competitiveness, arguing that restrictions on animal studies could slow progress in treating serious diseases.
But supporters argue the science is moving away from dog experiments. The Physicians Committee noted that in May 2025 the NIH closed its last in-house beagle lab, which the group called a major step toward replacing animal research with human-based methods. In June, the U.S. Navy said it will stop using dogs and cats in research. In December 2024, Congress approved the annual defense policy bill, which President Joe Biden signed into law, banning painful experiments on dogs and cats.
Backers of Queenie’s Law also emphasize alternatives they say are already producing better results for patients, including clinical trials, population studies, 3D organoids, and research using donated human organs. They often cite the Texas Heart Institute’s decision to stop using dogs in 2015, and they have pointed to developments in Michigan, including a functioning human heart model created at Michigan State University.
The bills are named after Queenie, a stray dog from Gratiot County that supporters say was subjected to months of heart failure experiments before being killed at Wayne State University.
For Wright and Johnston, the issue is personal as much as it is political. If dogs are considered family in Michigan homes, they argue, they shouldn’t be treated as disposable tools in public labs.