PETA has expressed gratitude towards the Trump administration for its role in ending government-funded animal testing, particularly following Dr. Jay Bhattacharya’s announcement about the closure of the last beagle testing facility at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Bhattacharya, who has gained prominence in the medical community, shared his thoughts on this significant topic during a Fox News segment over the weekend.
“It’s relatively straightforward to cure Alzheimer’s in mice, but those results don’t necessarily apply to humans,” he told host Rachel Campos Duffy. “Hence, we put forward a policy aimed at replacing animal studies with technological innovations, including AI and various tools.”
When Bhattacharya noted that all beagle experiments had been halted at the NIH, Duffy responded, “Amen.”
PETA’s Science Advancement Director, Dr. Emily Trunell, welcomed this long-awaited news in a statement obtained from Breitbart News.
“After facing over a decade of turmoil, countless emails from PETA supporters, and a landmark lawsuit in 2021, we are relieved to hear that NIH is putting an end to the distressing sepsis experiments that caused severe suffering to many animals. Since 2013, we’ve advocated for the complete cessation of these cruel and scientifically unproductive tests. Our fight will continue until they are entirely over. It’s crucial to highlight that the beagles, who suffered under these painful experiments, were obtained from Envigo. That facility was closed following a PETA investigation that unveiled appalling conditions involving thousands of dogs. We have facilitated the rescue of 4,000 dogs during this process.”
The cessation of beagle testing at the NIH follows revelations about disturbing experiments conducted under Dr. Anthony Fauci’s long leadership at the health agency.
For many years, investigations by White Coat Waste (WCW), a medical watchdog group, have revealed that over 2,100 beagles were sacrificed in a “harsh septic shock experiment” since 1986, where dogs endured severe conditions before being euthanized.
According to a report, “NIH infected the beagles with pneumonia, leading to septic shock. After four days, they would euthanize the beagle and store the body in a refrigerator.”
In response to Bhattacharya’s announcement, WCW Project founder Anthony Belotti expressed pride in their efforts to hold the NIH accountable.
“As the first watchdog to uncover Dr. Fauci’s beagle tests—one of the largest animal testing scandals in history—we are proud that White Coat Waste has been instrumental in closing NIH’s last beagle lab. We commend the President for cutting funding for such wasteful programs and will persist in our efforts to eliminate all dog labs.”
According to Breitbart News, Fauci’s department funded a troubling experiment at Kansas State University in 2021 involving puppy tests and deadly bacteria.
Reports indicate that 28 beagle puppies lost their lives every year during that particular study, amounting to about 126-138 dog deaths since its inception in December 2007.
Another investigation showed that Fauci’s agency sent part of a grant to drug beagles for experiments in Tunisia, where the animals were subjected to horrifying conditions.
“They locked beagles in cages for nine consecutive nights and used them as bait for sand flies,” the watchdog group reported.
This ending of animal testing under the Trump administration is part of a broader push, as PETA has recently praised both the FDA and EPA for sparing many animals from suffering.
