Several Republican House members, led by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), are demanding the termination of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding going toward cruel experiments on dogs and cats.
In a letter penned to NIH Director Jayanta Bhattacharya, reviewed by Breitbart News, lawmakers raise the issue highlighted by the taxpayer watchdog White Coat Waste Project (WCW), which has demonstrated that 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, forcefed experimental drugs, and killed.”
“As Congress begins its work to implement the Trump Administration’s request for a 40 percent cut to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget in Fiscal Year 2026, we are writing to request that the you immediately terminate funding for barbaric dog and cat experiments approved by Dr. Anthony Fauci and his Biden-era successors at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID),” the lawmakers write, noting that their previous request to Fauci’s successor under the Biden-Harris administration — Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo — was ignored.
The letter details how Fauci admitted to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability that “he personally signed off on these egregious animal tests” and that many of these tests continued to go on, even after he left his post. Some of the funding for these cruel Fauci- approved experiments on dogs and cats still remains in place.
“Included in this ongoing list is a set of Fauci-funded experiments at the University of Missouri Columbia where 400 beagle puppies are being infested with ticks for painful research, including tests in which pain relief is intentionally withheld,” they wrote, noting that taxpayers have spent $13.1 million on this cruel experiment. They also note that two of the grants for the beagle lab experiments were renewed as recently as April and June of this year.
Lawmakers highlighted another barbaric grant to NIAID, involving infecting healthy cats with the coronavirus and subsequently killing them.
“It is time to end this waste and abuse for good,” they wrote.
“Additionally, we request a list of all active grants, contracts, and other funding for dog and cat experiments from NIAID and other NIH divisions,” lawmakers added.
The letter is signed by Reps. Gosar (R-AZ), Harriet Hageman (R-WY), Daniel Webster (R-FL), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Nancy Mace (R-SC), Elijah Crane (R-AZ), Scott Perry (R-PA), Pete Stauber (R-MN), Michael Cloud (R-TX), Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ), and Pat Fallon (R-TX).
“White Coat Waste was the first—and remains the only—group to uncover and expose Dr. Fauci’s taxpayer-funded kitten and beagle experiments in the U.S. and Tunisia,” WCW’s Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy Justin Goodman said in a statement to Breitbart News. “That’s why we’re proud to support Rep. Gosar and his colleagues for holding NIH accountable for renewing Fauci’s taxpayer-funded dog and cat experiments.”
“President Trump and Secretary Kennedy have made it clear: slash NIH’s bloated budget by 40 percent. But instead of following that directive, Director Jay Bhattacharya is plunging into his own BeagleGate scandal—extending Fauci’s torture labs and NIH declaring: ‘We have no intention of just phasing out animal studies overnight,’” Goodman stated.
“While Trump’s Pentagon, Department of Veterans Affairs and EPA have banned or cut animal testing in direct response to WCW’s investigations, and the FDA has issued its first-ever phase-out plan, Bhattacharya’s NIH is doubling down—approving Biden-Fauci era grants and new payouts to labs where beagles are blinded, injected with cocaine, eaten alive by ticks, kittens’ eyes are sewn shut, cats are killed in COVID tests—and worse,” he continued. “And yet, the legacy organizations—some so-called ‘animal rights groups’—are still applauding NIH. This isn’t reform. It’s regression. And the solution isn’t more bureaucracy. It’s less spending: Stop the money. Stop the madness!”
Despite the progress that remains to take place, progress has been made elsewhere. In May, U.S. Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan announced that the U.S. Navy is terminating all testing on cats and dogs, and Trump’s EPA, under the direction of Administrator Lee Zeldin, highlighted plans to roll back animal testing.
The FDA is also taking strides in this direction as well.
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