NIH closes experimentation labs accused of brutally killing thousands of beagles for 40+ years
National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Jay Bhattacharya recently announced on Fox News the agency closed its last in-house beagle laboratory on the NIH campus.
The announcement comes just days after Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk posted on X that he would investigate funding beagle experiments.
A report from the White Coat Waste (WCW) project detailed the lab's history of allegedly pumping pneumonia-causing bacteria into more than 2,000 beagles’ lungs, bleeding them out, and forcing them into septic shock for deadly experiments.
Following the announcement, WCW president and founder Anthony Bellotti praised President Donald Trump for ending the highly scrutinized project.
"Taxpayers and pet owners shouldn’t be forced to pay for the NIH’s beagle abuse," Bellotti wrote in a statement. "We applaud the President for cutting this wasteful NIH spending and will keep fighting until we defund all dog labs at home and abroad. The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!"
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Shortly after the Trump administration took office, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in April it would phase out an animal testing requirement for antibody therapies and other drugs in favor of testing on materials that mimic human organs.
Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin also announced his agency would reinstate a 2019 policy from the first Trump administration to phase out animal testing.
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During Trump's first term in 2019, the administration closed the government’s largest cat lab.
Bhattacharya said People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) reached out to him following the closure of the beagle testing facility, sending him flowers.
"Normally, I think NIH directors tend to get physical threats, but they sent me flowers," Bhattacharya said on air.
PETA in 2021 highlighted Anthony Fauci's alleged approval of funding for tests in Tunisia where beagle puppies were drugged, and their heads were locked in cages filled with hungry, infected sandflies.
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After the reports came out, 23 bipartisan lawmakers, including Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., sent a letter to Fauci addressing the heartbreaking experiments.
"Yesterday, I sent a letter to Dr. Fauci regarding cruel, taxpayer-funded experiments on puppies; debarking before drugging and killing them," Mace wrote in an October 2021 post on X. "This is disgusting. What say you @NIH."
Kathy Guillermo, PETA senior vice president of laboratory investigations, told Fox News Digital on Sunday night the organization is "delighted" by the news of the NIH facility closure.
"We are letting the new NIH Director know how important this step is for modernizing science, and we're especially happy because these last experiments involved sepsis, which we have been working to end for several years. Sepsis experiments on animals are failures."
Guillermo noted PETA has a lawsuit pending, filed under the Biden administration, to try to prevent the government from funding any more sepsis experiments.
The Indiana-based company that bred the beagles for research, Envigo, pleaded guilty in 2024 to neglecting thousands of dogs at its Cumberland, Virginia, breeding facility, and will be required to pay more than $35 million in fines, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.
"We are just thrilled to see that the [Envigo] beagles who were used [at the NIH location], will no longer be used," Guillermo said. "We first exposed [Envigo] in an undercover investigation that eventually led to the closure of the facility and the release of 4,000 beagles to good homes."
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PETA is awaiting information about the condition of the dogs that will be released, and if they are in good enough shape to be placed in a home, Guillermo said they stand ready to help.
"Dr. Bhattacharya has made a wonderful start, and there is a lot more work to be done, because animals are being experimented on, including beagles and other dogs, across the country," she said. "So we're looking forward to what comes next."
The White House and the NIH did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this report.
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