NIH closes dog experimentation labs accused of brutally killing thousands of beagles

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently made headlines when director Jay Bhattacharya announced the closure of the agency’s last in-house beagle laboratory on the NIH campus. This decision comes in the wake of increasing scrutiny over the use of beagles in experiments funded by the agency.

The move to close the lab follows a report from the White Coat Waste (WCW) project, which detailed the lab’s history of conducting experiments on over 2,000 beagles. These experiments involved pumping pneumonia-causing bacteria into the dogs’ lungs, bleeding them out, and inducing septic shock for deadly research purposes.

In response to the closure of the lab, WCW president and founder Anthony Bellotti praised President Donald Trump for putting an end to the controversial project. Bellotti emphasized the need to stop taxpayer-funded abuse of animals and called for the defunding of all dog labs, both domestically and internationally.

The closure of the NIH beagle lab is part of a larger trend towards phasing out animal testing in government agencies. In recent years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans to eliminate an animal testing requirement for antibody therapies and other drugs in favor of alternative testing methods. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also reinstated a policy to phase out animal testing during the Trump administration.

In addition to the closure of the beagle lab, the Trump administration also shut down the government’s largest cat lab in 2019. These actions have been met with praise from animal rights organizations, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who have been advocating for an end to cruel animal experiments.

PETA has been actively campaigning against the use of animals in research, including calling out Dr. Anthony Fauci for approving funding for experiments involving beagle puppies in Tunisia. The organization has filed a lawsuit to prevent the government from funding sepsis experiments on animals.

Overall, the closure of the NIH beagle lab represents a significant step towards ending the use of animals in research. While there is still work to be done to ensure the welfare of animals used in experiments, the move is a positive development for animal rights advocates and those concerned about ethical research practices.