Republicans Work to Defund NIH’s Barbaric Dog and Cat Labs As Agency Continues To Defy Trump

Republicans Work to Defund NIH’s Barbaric Dog and Cat Labs As Agency Continues To Defy Trump

Following Laura Loomer’s exclusive reporting on White Coat Waste’s (WCW) investigations, Congress is taking bold action to cut National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for cruel experiments on dogs and cats as the agency continues to defy President Donald Trump’s request to dramatically slash spending under the new leadership of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.

Read more here:

Last week, a bipartisan coalition led by Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-SC) reintroduced the Preventing Animal Abuse and Waste (PAAW) Act, which would permanently defund all of the NIH’s painful experiments on dogs and cats, both in the U.S. and abroad in countries like China where they are tested in on labs funded by US taxpayer dollars.  

WCW has documented that under the leadership of NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, Trump’s NIH has been renewing Fauci-era animal labs and pouring millions into brand-new beagle experiments, despite public outrage and criticism from House Republicans. 

For instance, Laura Loomer broke the story about videos and other documents obtained by WCW which reveal the NIH has renewed a five-year grant to a lab that breeds 600 dogs for painful and lethal testing.  

WCW has also obtained documents through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) showing how the NIH just extended a grant paying a lab at Temple University to surgically induce heart failure in dozens of two-month-old kittens and then kill them by cutting out their hearts. 

The scale of taxpayer-funded animal cruelty is staggering. According to WCW’s investigations and testimony, over 16,000 dogs and cats were subjected to painful, often deadly experiments in U.S. labs last year—many without pain relief, and most funded by the NIH. No federal agency spends more on this kind of abuse than NIH. 

While President Trump’s Pentagon has already banned and defunded dog and cat testing exposed by WCW and Loomer—citing the group and Loomer by name in their justification—Bhattacharya and his Acting Deputy Director Nicole Kleinstreuer (who is a holdover from the Obama and Biden administrations) have both refused to halt NIH grants or ban future funding, even in the face of mounting bipartisan pressure.

In a recent letter to Bhattacharya, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and 10 other House Republicans wrote, “Ongoing investigations by the non-profit group White Coat Waste have documented how the NIH continues to renew and fund dozens of Dr. Fauci’s disturbing experiments on dogs and cats in labs around the world, in which animals are infested with insects, infected with viruses, force-fed experimental drugs, and killed.” They went on to state that, “We request the NIH immediately terminate all NIAID grants, contracts, cooperative agreements, and other funding for dog and cat research…and prohibit all future NIH funding for harmful dog and cat testing.” 

Within days of the letter, and in response to an enormous public pressure campaign from WCW, over a quarter-million taxpayers, Lara Trump, and Laura Loomer, Bhattacharya and Kleinstreuer released a video blaming their predecessors—claiming these animal labs “predate” them—even though many of the exposed grants were first approved and funded on their watch. They also claimed to be “working tirelessly” to “phase out” dog and cat labs, but many existing grants are being renewed and new grants have been initiated and funded under their leadership during the new Trump administration while other agencies are canceling these abusive and cruel animal testing grants. 

As WCW’s President and Founder Anthony Bellotti recently wrote in a new column, the Trump administration is scoring major wins against cruel animal testing, but the NIH is lagging behind.

President Trump should join WCW and support the PAAW Act to end cruel pet testing at NIH once and for all. 

The post Republicans Work to Defund NIH’s Barbaric Dog and Cat Labs As Agency Continues To Defy Trump appeared first on Loomered.