Latest news with #WhiteCoatWaste
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
NIH under fire for funding dog tests despite vow to cut animal research
The US National Institute of Health (NIH) is continuing to fund 'cruel and wasteful' animal experiments involving dogs and cats, despite their recent announcement to reduce animal research. The NIH director, Jay Bhattacharya, announced in April the launch of a new initiative to 'reduce testing in animals' and prioritise 'human-based technologies' such as organ-on-a-chip and real-world data, in a 'new era of innovation' in biomedical research. The move seeks to address longstanding translational failures of animal research to predict human outcomes in diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's, 'due to differences in anatomy, physiology, lifespan, and disease characteristics'. However, information obtained by the animal rights NGO White Coat Waste (WCW) shows that the NIH has in fact funded millions of dollars' worth of new animal experiments. Analysis of project documents and those obtained through Freedom of Information Act (Foia) requests reveal that the NIH has approved nine new grants for dog research since their April announcement, costing the taxpayer over $12m, as well as extending about nine already active, with total study costs of $42m. WCW says these are in addition to the approximately 193 ongoing NIH-funded dog and cat studies, costing about $1.3bn. New experiments uncovered by WCW include toxicology testing of an investigational drug to treat methamphetamine addiction. Toxicology tests often involve force-feeding or injecting dogs with increasingly large doses of a compound daily for up to a year. Extended research includes a cocaine experiment to study cardiovascular effects. This involves beagles being strapped into jackets that inject them with cocaine as well as being force-fed an experimental drug to see how the two drugs interact. Another vaccine experiment involves infecting beagle puppies with viruses by strapping containers full of 'mutant' ticks to their bare skin, sometimes with pain relief intentionally withheld. White Coat Waste, a watchdog to end US taxpayer-funded animal experiments, says the NIH should shut down these laboratories. 'Animal tests are bad spending and bad science, 95% of drugs tested on animals fail in human trials. The NIH's April announcement does not include any spending cuts, deadlines or benchmarks. The rhetoric doesn't match reality right now,' said WCW's senior vice-president, Justin Goodman. The NIH is the primary medical research authority in the US and the world's biggest funder of animal research, spending an estimated $20bn annually. Yet Donald Trump proposes to slash the NIH budget by 40% to $27bn next year. 'Trump hates waste and animal experimentation is the poster child for wasteful spending. The best place to start would be to cut funding for animal labs which make up 40% of the NIH budget. It's outdated, expensive, there's little return for taxpayers and the American people don't want pets tortured,' Goodman says. Despite the cuts, in a move welcomed by Goodman as 'encouraging', the acting NIH deputy director, Dr Nicole Kleinstreuer, said in an NIH podcast last week that dog and cat tests were 'unconscionable' and has pledged to phase them out. 'I don't think we should do research on dogs and cats. Absolutely not. We are constrained under the law to leave those existing grants in place, for now, but to phase them out, we are working tirelessly behind the scenes,' Kleinstreuer said. An NIH spokesperson told the Guardian that to support the organization's 'shift toward human-focused research, all future funding announcements will emphasize human-relevant data such as clinical trials and real-world data, and new approach methods (NAMs) such as advanced laboratory-based methods and AI-driven tools'. 'NIH will no longer issue Notice of Funding announcements exclusively for animal models, and some may exclude animal use entirely advancing science that directly benefits human health,' they continued. The NIH plans to reduce animal research by establishing a new office of research innovation, validation and application (Oriva) to develop and expand NAMs. The NIH have also taken other significant steps away from animal research recently, including 'terminating funding at Harvard University for studies that included sewing the eyes of young monkeys shut' and closing NIH campus beagle labs. The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, which supports animal experimentation, has written to the NIH urging 'caution against prematurely removing animal research from the scientific toolkit in lieu of approaches not yet ready to address important biomedical inquiries in full'. Notably, the recent NIH announcements have been welcomed by many as 'historic'. Jarrod Bailey, the director of medical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine told the Guardian that the NIH is 'now leading the way in making research more humane and human-relevant, which will save millions of animal and human lives. 'Changing the way the NIH has operated for decades will take some time. We want to see the NIH delivering more in the coming months, but the significant shift away from animal experiments are unprecedented and very encouraging,' he said. Oriva is part of a broader federal trend in the US. The FDA has also published a roadmap to end animal experiments in preclinical safety studies. Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
16-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
NIH under fire for funding dog tests despite vow to cut animal research
The US National Institute of Health (NIH) is continuing to fund 'cruel and wasteful' animal experiments involving dogs and cats, despite their recent announcement to reduce animal research. The NIH director, Jay Bhattacharya, announced in April the launch of a new initiative to 'reduce testing in animals' and prioritise 'human-based technologies' such as organ-on-a-chip and real-world data, in a 'new era of innovation' in biomedical research. The move seeks to address longstanding translational failures of animal research to predict human outcomes in diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's, 'due to differences in anatomy, physiology, lifespan, and disease characteristics'. However, information obtained by the animal rights NGO White Coat Waste (WCW) shows that the NIH has in fact funded millions of dollars' worth of new animal experiments. Analysis of project documents and those obtained through Freedom of Information Act (Foia) requests reveal that the NIH has approved nine new grants for dog research since their April announcement, costing the taxpayer over $12m, as well as extending about nine already active, with total study costs of $42m. WCW says these are in addition to the approximately 193 ongoing NIH-funded dog and cat studies, costing about $1.3bn. New experiments uncovered by WCW include toxicology testing of an investigational drug to treat methamphetamine addiction. Toxicology tests often involve force-feeding or injecting dogs with increasingly large doses of a compound daily for up to a year. Extended research includes a cocaine experiment to study cardiovascular effects. This involves beagles being strapped into jackets that inject them with cocaine as well as being force-fed an experimental drug to see how the two drugs interact. Another vaccine experiment involves infecting beagle puppies with viruses by strapping containers full of 'mutant' ticks to their bare skin, sometimes with pain relief intentionally withheld. White Coat Waste, a watchdog to end US taxpayer-funded animal experiments, says the NIH should shut down these laboratories. 'Animal tests are bad spending and bad science, 95% of drugs tested on animals fail in human trials. The NIH's April announcement does not include any spending cuts, deadlines or benchmarks. The rhetoric doesn't match reality right now,' said WCW's senior vice-president, Justin Goodman. The NIH is the primary medical research authority in the US and the world's biggest funder of animal research, spending an estimated $20bn annually. Yet Donald Trump proposes to slash the NIH budget by 40% to $27bn next year. 'Trump hates waste and animal experimentation is the poster child for wasteful spending. The best place to start would be to cut funding for animal labs which make up 40% of the NIH budget. It's outdated, expensive, there's little return for taxpayers and the American people don't want pets tortured,' Goodman says. Despite the cuts, in a move welcomed by Goodman as 'encouraging', the acting NIH deputy director, Dr Nicole Kleinstreuer, said in an NIH podcast last week that dog and cat tests were 'unconscionable' and has pledged to phase them out. 'I don't think we should do research on dogs and cats. Absolutely not. We are constrained under the law to leave those existing grants in place, for now, but to phase them out, we are working tirelessly behind the scenes,' Kleinstreuer said. An NIH spokesperson told the Guardian that to support the organization's 'shift toward human-focused research, all future funding announcements will emphasize human-relevant data such as clinical trials and real-world data, and new approach methods (NAMs) such as advanced laboratory-based methods and AI-driven tools'. 'NIH will no longer issue Notice of Funding announcements exclusively for animal models, and some may exclude animal use entirely advancing science that directly benefits human health,' they continued. The NIH plans to reduce animal research by establishing a new office of research innovation, validation and application (Oriva) to develop and expand NAMs. The NIH have also taken other significant steps away from animal research recently, including 'terminating funding at Harvard University for studies that included sewing the eyes of young monkeys shut' and closing NIH campus beagle labs. The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, which supports animal experimentation, has written to the NIH urging 'caution against prematurely removing animal research from the scientific toolkit in lieu of approaches not yet ready to address important biomedical inquiries in full'. Notably, the recent NIH announcements have been welcomed by many as 'historic'. Jarrod Bailey, the director of medical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine told the Guardian that the NIH is 'now leading the way in making research more humane and human-relevant, which will save millions of animal and human lives. 'Changing the way the NIH has operated for decades will take some time. We want to see the NIH delivering more in the coming months, but the significant shift away from animal experiments are unprecedented and very encouraging,' he said. Oriva is part of a broader federal trend in the US. The FDA has also published a roadmap to end animal experiments in preclinical safety studies.
The Guardian
16-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
NIH under fire for funding dog tests despite vow to cut animal research
The US National Institute of Health (NIH) is continuing to fund 'cruel and wasteful' animal experiments involving dogs and cats, despite their recent announcement to reduce animal research. The NIH director, Jay Bhattacharya, announced in April the launch of a new initiative to 'reduce testing in animals' and prioritise 'human-based technologies' such as organ-on-a-chip and real-world data, in a 'new era of innovation' in biomedical research. The move seeks to address longstanding translational failures of animal research to predict human outcomes in diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's, 'due to differences in anatomy, physiology, lifespan, and disease characteristics'. However, information obtained by the animal rights NGO White Coat Waste (WCW) shows that the NIH has in fact funded millions of dollars' worth of new animal experiments. Analysis of project documents and those obtained through Freedom of Information Act (Foia) requests reveal that the NIH has approved nine new grants for dog research since their April announcement, costing the taxpayer over $12m, as well as extending about nine already active, with total study costs of $42m. WCW says these are in addition to the approximately 193 ongoing NIH-funded dog and cat studies, costing about $1.3bn. New experiments uncovered by WCW include toxicology testing of an investigational drug to treat methamphetamine addiction. Toxicology tests often involve force-feeding or injecting dogs with increasingly large doses of a compound daily for up to a year. Extended research includes a cocaine experiment to study cardiovascular effects. This involves beagles being strapped into jackets that inject them with cocaine as well as being force-fed an experimental drug to see how the two drugs interact. Another vaccine experiment involves infecting beagle puppies with viruses by strapping containers full of 'mutant' ticks to their bare skin, sometimes with pain relief intentionally withheld. White Coat Waste, a watchdog to end US taxpayer-funded animal experiments, says the NIH should shut down these laboratories. 'Animal tests are bad spending and bad science, 95% of drugs tested on animals fail in human trials. The NIH's April announcement does not include any spending cuts, deadlines or benchmarks. The rhetoric doesn't match reality right now,' said WCW's senior vice-president, Justin Goodman. The NIH is the primary medical research authority in the US and the world's biggest funder of animal research, spending an estimated $20bn annually. Yet Donald Trump proposes to slash the NIH budget by 40% to $27bn next year. 'Trump hates waste and animal experimentation is the poster child for wasteful spending. The best place to start would be to cut funding for animal labs which make up 40% of the NIH budget. It's outdated, expensive, there's little return for taxpayers and the American people don't want pets tortured,' Goodman says. Despite the cuts, in a move welcomed by Goodman as 'encouraging', the acting NIH deputy director, Dr Nicole Kleinstreuer, said in an NIH podcast last week that dog and cat tests were 'unconscionable' and has pledged to phase them out. 'I don't think we should do research on dogs and cats. Absolutely not. We are constrained under the law to leave those existing grants in place, for now, but to phase them out, we are working tirelessly behind the scenes,' Kleinstreuer said. An NIH spokesperson told the Guardian that to support the organization's 'shift toward human-focused research, all future funding announcements will emphasize human-relevant data such as clinical trials and real-world data, and new approach methods (NAMs) such as advanced laboratory-based methods and AI-driven tools'. 'NIH will no longer issue Notice of Funding announcements exclusively for animal models, and some may exclude animal use entirely advancing science that directly benefits human health,' they continued. The NIH plans to reduce animal research by establishing a new office of research innovation, validation and application (Oriva) to develop and expand NAMs. The NIH have also taken other significant steps away from animal research recently, including 'terminating funding at Harvard University for studies that included sewing the eyes of young monkeys shut' and closing NIH campus beagle labs. The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, which supports animal experimentation, has written to the NIH urging 'caution against prematurely removing animal research from the scientific toolkit in lieu of approaches not yet ready to address important biomedical inquiries in full'. Notably, the recent NIH announcements have been welcomed by many as 'historic'. Jarrod Bailey, the director of medical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine told the Guardian that the NIH is 'now leading the way in making research more humane and human-relevant, which will save millions of animal and human lives. 'Changing the way the NIH has operated for decades will take some time. We want to see the NIH delivering more in the coming months, but the significant shift away from animal experiments are unprecedented and very encouraging,' he said. Oriva is part of a broader federal trend in the US. The FDA has also published a roadmap to end animal experiments in preclinical safety studies.
Time of India
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
US Navy bans dog and cat experiments following White Coat Waste Project advocacy
White Coat Waste Project uncovered a $10 Navy-funded lab that was performing painful experiments on cats, some of which were already disabled. The experiments involved tests and electroshocking experiments on the cats as a part of strange and disturbing research on things like constipation and erectile problems. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now After their relentless investigation and public campaign, the US Navy has officially announced a ban on all experiments involving dogs and cats. With this, a very painful chapter of government-funded abuse comes to an end. According to WAN, the White Coast investigators uncovered the barbaric practices, exposing them to the public through international media outlets. The shocking news led to a huge response from regular people all over the country, including concerned taxpayers, animal lovers, and pet owners US Navy permanently ends dog and cat testing after activist pressure Anthony Bellotti, President and Founder of White Coat Waste, told WAN 'White Coat Waste didn't just shut down this one cat crippling lab—we ended all future dog and cat testing by the Navy, for good. As someone who's proudly adopted several cat survivors who were rescued after White Coat Waste shut down their labs, this victory is deeply personal. Knowing that no more puppies or kittens will suffer behind Navy lab doors makes this a defining moment in the movement to end animal testing. ' 'We're grateful to Secretary John Phelan, Pete Hegseth, and the Trump Administration for this policy. Pets are family. For too long, beloved dogs and cats were abused in secretive government labs. That era is ending—because White Coat Waste is ending it. The solution is simple: Stop the Money. Stop the Madness,' added Bellotti. PETA reacts to the initiative for animals by White Coast Waste members According to the reports, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) penned a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan, thanking the Trump administration for its ban on Navy-funded dog and cat experiments and requesting a broader ban on all animal testing in all the military branches. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now PETA Vice President Shalin Gala wrote in a statement, "PETA appreciates the Trump administration's decision to stop the Navy's torture tests on dogs and cats, and we urge a broader ban across the Pentagon to end the use of animals in Navy-funded decompression sickness and oxygen toxicity tests, Army-funded weapon-wounding tests and DOD-funded foreign experiments. PETA further urged the Department of Defense to conduct a similar comprehensive, agency-wide audit aimed at rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in cruel and outdated animal experimentation A major win for the innocents For the public and members of the White Coat Waste team who have adopted rescued animals from closed-down government labs, this mission is very personal. Knowing that no more puppies or kittens will suffer behind Navy lab doors marks a powerful and emotional victory. With this major win, we must continue to push for the end of animal testing nationwide, once and for all.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Cats and Dogs Will No Longer Be Used in Navy Research, Secretary Says
The Navy will end all research studies that involve testing on dogs and cats after an intense campaign by activists, influencers and congressional members. Navy Secretary John Phelan announced last week that the service would halt the animal experiments and ordered a review of all medical research to ensure the studies align with ethical guidelines and "scientific necessity." "Today, it gives me great pleasure to terminate all Department of the Navy's testing on cats and dogs, ending these inhumane practices and saving taxpayer dollars," Phelan said in a statement on the social media platform X. Read Next: Hegseth Orders Navy to Strip Name of Gay Rights Icon Harvey Milk from Ship The announcement follows a yearslong campaign by White Coat Waste Project, a nonprofit whose aim is to stop the U.S. government from using animals or funding research that harms animals, and to end several Defense Department studies, including Navy research on erectile dysfunction, constipation and incontinence in humans that used cats as subjects. As recently as last year, the Defense Department funded a research initiative using beagles to test an experimental drug, according to the group. The DoD banned the use of dogs in trauma training and weapons testing in the late 1980s but has used them in limited medical research. White Coat Waste estimates that the federal government spends $20 billion each year on research studies that involve dogs and cats. "We applaud Secretary Phelan, Secretary Hegseth and President Trump for first slashing the U.S. government's largest dog lab and now sending the Pentagon's cat and dog abuse to the litterbox of history. Defunding dog and cat labs has been our top priority for Trump 47," the group's founder and president, Anthony Bellotti, said in a statement. White Coat Waste announced in mid-May that the Pentagon halted funding for the Navy's $10.8 million medical research project on cats. The group credited conservative influencer Laura Loomer, who has called attention to the issue on her "Loomer Unleashed" podcast and social media platforms, and billionaire and presidential adviser Elon Musk for lobbying for change. "We exposed animal testing contracts at the Department of Defense, and @PeteHegseth and Secretary Phelan took immediate action to end these cruel and abusive taxpayer-funded experiments on innocent animals," Loomer wrote on X on May 28. "This is such an amazing victory toward the end of taxpayer-funded animal testing!" Last year, Congress signed legislation to end research at the Department of Veterans Affairs that used cats, dogs and primates. White Coat Waste began lobbying lawmakers to end the VA's use of live animals for experiments in 2017. After Phelan's announcement, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wrote the Navy secretary and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth thanking them for the change. But they asked that the ban be expanded to include the use of live animals for non-medical research, such as trauma training and weapons experiments. For example, according to PETA, the Navy continues to use mammals for decompression sickness and oxygen tests, while the Army is allowed to use mammals, including primates and marine mammals, in weapons testing. "Pigs, rats and other animals feel pain and fear just as dogs and cats do, and their torment in gruesome military experiments must end," PETA Vice President Shalin Gala said in a statement. "PETA appreciates the Trump administration's decision to stop the Navy's torture tests on dogs and cats, and we urge a broader ban across the Pentagon." PETA also has pressed the Pentagon to halt funding for research that involves animals at foreign institutions. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., reintroduced a bill last month that would end U.S. government funding of research that involves animals in China, including Hong Kong; Iran; North Korea; and Russia. "American taxpayer dollars should never fund dangerous, cruel experiments in animal research labs -- much less in China or other adversarial countries," McClain said in a statement. "This common-sense legislation ensures taxpayer dollars are not wasted on reckless research." "Hard-working taxpayers in eastern North Carolina and across America should not pay for risky experimentation in countries not subject to regular oversight and accountability," Democratic co-sponsor Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina, said in a news release. -- Pentagon reporter Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report. Related: Military Trauma Training on Live Pigs, Goats Sparks New Lawsuit Seeking Details
