Biden’s NIH Pressed Over Taxpayer Funded “Cruel Dog Tests”

EXCLUSIVE — President Joe Biden’s National Institutes of Health is being pressed by members of Congress for answers on the agency’s taxpayer-backed “cruel dog tests,” according to a Thursday letter obtained by the Washington Examiner.

The NIH has come under fire for conducting experiments on dogs and other animals, including at its National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an agency directed by retiring chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci. Now, 10 Republican and Democratic lawmakers are demanding information from the NIH on its testing operations and the NIAID’s previously planned $2 million puppy tests that Fauci canceled after pressure from Congress and White Coat Waste Project, a watchdog group.

“Americans across the political spectrum have been horrified to learn their tax dollars are being wasted to subsidize NIH’s barbaric experiments on beagle puppies,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) who introduced a bill in December 2021 that would defund dog testing at Fauci’s NIAID, told the Washington Examiner. “I’m proud to be leading bipartisan efforts to investigate NIH’s dog abuse, hold the agency accountable, and ensure taxpayer money is not used to support outdated, unnecessary and cruel experiments on dogs.”

FAUCI CANCELS $1.8 MILLION DRUG TESTING ON BEAGLE PUPPIES

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Until July, the NIAID planned to test an experimental hay fever drug on dogs, including puppies, as well as rats and mice, according to documents obtained by White Coat Waste Project. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) requested information about the tests from the NIH in June — leading to Fauci informing the Republican that dogs will not be tested on.

“Although the contract to Inimmune Corporation proposed the use of murine and canine preclinical animal models, after consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the company elected to proceed using two rodent models only,” Fauci wrote in a letter to Ernst in July. “No experiments utilizing the canine model are being conducted under this contract.”

The Food and Drug Administration does not require that animals be used for cosmetic-related or drug testing, according to the agency’s website. The NIAID under Fauci has used taxpayer dollars on tests in which dogs are “bitten to death by flies,” poisoned, stripped of vocal cords, and tortured in foreign countries, White Coat Waste Project has uncovered through Freedom of Information Act requests.

In their Thursday letter, Mace and the lawmakers say how members of Congress have continued to press on the issue of dogs being used for experimental tests. More than a dozen members raised concerns in February over the use of dogs for cocaine tests. The NIH spent $2.3 million on those tests, which involved male beagles being injected with the Schedule II drug.

“Other federal agencies, including the FDA, Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Veterans Affairs have already launched laudable efforts to curb testing on dogs and other animals,” the members wrote in their letter.

“With no apparent plan in place to reduce inefficient and painful testing on dogs, the NIH is therefore an outlier among its peers,” they continued. “This is particularly notable given that the NIH has frequently acknowledged the wastefulness of animal testing.”

The lawmakers are asking the NIH to explain why it awarded a $1.8 million contract, in the first place, to use dogs for the hay fever tests. They also want to know the number of dogs and taxpayer dollars the NIH has used in the last five years to assess new drugs that may have been submitted for FDA approval.

Further, the members want to know whether the NIH has met with the FDA to discuss ways it can reduce drug testing on dogs and “use alternative testing methods to fulfill regulatory requirements” and what exact “incentives” the NIH may provide to contractors and grantees to avoid animal testing.

In addition to Mace, the letter was signed by Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Greg Steube (R-FL), Mike Garcia (R-CA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Brian Mast (R-FL), Bill Posey (R-FL), and Young Kim (R-CA).

Democratic Reps. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Dina Titus of Nevada also signed the letter.

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“A growing majority of Democrat and Republican taxpayers oppose government animal tests and they shouldn’t be forced to pay mad scientists in white coats millions of dollars to torment and kill dogs and puppies in wasteful experiments,” Desiree Bender, campaign manager for White Coat Waste Project, told the Washington Examiner.

The NIH did not respond to a request for comment.