On Aug. 24, 1966, the U.S. Congress passed legislation that became known as the Animal Welfare Act (P.L. 89-544) with goals of preventing the theft and sale of pets to research laboratories and regulating the humane care and handling of dogs, cats, and other laboratory animals.

The law originated with a June 22, 1965 Sports Illustrated story of Pepper, a family dog stolen from the farm of Juliam and Peter Lakavaga in Pennsylvania earlier that month and sold to a research facility in New York. Pepper’s theft and death prompted Rep. Joseph Resnick (D-NY) to introduce a Laboratory Animal Welfare bill in Congress that was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson a year later.