Fauci Decides to Stop Drug Testing on Beagle Puppies

Under fire from foes of federal animal testing, the agency headed by COVID-19 czar Anthony Fauci has canceled a plan to start new tests of allergy medicine on beagles, some as young as 6 months.

In a letter to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and promoted by the White Coat Waste Project, Fauci said that instead of dogs, the new hay fever drug will be tested on rodents.

“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, the company elected to proceed using two rodent models only,” wrote Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “No experiments utilizing the canine model are being conducted under this contract.”

What’s more, he said there is no funding for the testing headed to China, another concern of Ernst.

The letter was a big victory for Ernst and the animal rights group, which had started a popular hashtag campaign against the testing: #BeagleGate.

In a statement shared with Secrets, Ernst said, “Dr. Fauci was barking up the wrong tree when he decided to use government dollars on dog testing. These inhumane practices have no place in our government — much less on the taxpayer’s dime. Thankfully, after voicing our concerns and shining a light on these heinous tactics, taxpayers can rest easy knowing their hard-earned money is not going towards dog abuse.”

Devin Murphy, with the White Coat Waste Project, added, “We’re thrilled that following White Coat Waste Project’s latest #BeagleGate investigation and outstanding advocacy by Senator Joni Ernst, Dr. Fauci’s $1.8 million ‘runny nose’ experiments on beagle puppies have been completely canceled. This is a decisive victory in the war on waste, and sends a message to big-spending white coats across the federal government: taxpayers should not be forced to pay for wasteful, unnecessary, and cruel experiments on puppies and other animals.”