Anthony Bellotti — founder of the White Coat Waste Project—describes his formative years, and the role animals played in them, highlighting his pivotal experience as a high school student, when he worked as an intern in an animal experimentation lab, and was horrified by what he witnessed. 
That jarring misadventure was the impetus, nearly two decades later, for Bellotti launching the White Coat Waste Project, which seeks to combat federally-funded animal research, primarily motivated by what it considers the wasteful government spending of taxpayers’ money that bankrolls this research. Bellotti outlines the stints he did spanning many years as a political consultant, working for Arnold Schwarzenegger, senators, congressman, ballot initiatives, and more, learning all about how the
mechanics of elections, how Washington machinery operates, etc., in order to be well armed with expertise, experience and an array of tools to be fully effective at the helm of White Coat Waste Project. Bellotti goes on to explain that White Coat flipped the model of all the other organizations protesting animal experimentation, essentially making the bottom line the bottom line, as such, calls White Coat “the only animal organization with 
bipartisan reach.” He addresses one of White Coat’s current campaigns, including one focused on Veterans’ Administration facilities in four locations (http://www.prisonersofwaste.org), which has yielded information about a Dr. Alex Tan, who has botched operations on dogs at the Richmond, VA facility, and has somehow been permitted to treat veterans, too. (www.whitecoatwaste.org)
ALSO: I spoke briefly with Ken Koenig, of Dunedin Doggie Rescue, about their focus on pulling dogs from facilities that are otherwise likely to be euthanized, and places them in foster homes en route to landing in forever homes. He also discussed a series of Dunedin Doggie events scheduled in the coming weeks, which help underwrite the expenses of this small organization. (www.dunedindogs.com)
COMEDY CORNER: Dana Gould’s “Snakes & Alligators” (www.danagould.com)
MUSIC: Rebekah Pulley’s “Talking Animals Theme,” instrumentals
NAME THAT ANIMAL TUNE: X’s “Hungry Wolf”
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