NIH Announces Closure of Government-Funded Labs That Test on Beagles

On Sunday, National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Jay Bhattacharya announced in a Fox News (Right bias) interview that the institute “got rid of all the beagle experiments on the NIH campus.”

The Details: According to the White Coat Waste Project, which self-describes as a bipartisan government watchdog aiming to terminate government animal experimentation, the NIH lab “killed more than 2,133 beagles in brutal septic shock experiments.” Bhattacharya did not detail how or when the experiments were shut down.

For Context: The Food and Drug Administration also announced in April they will phase out animal testing requirements for antibody therapies and other drugs. In February, the House Oversight Committee posted an estimate from White Coat which said the US spends $20 billion each year on animal testing.

How the Media Covered It: Snopes (Lean Left) wrote that “animal welfare groups celebrated the announcement,” but included that the NIH has not commented on what will happen to the remaining animals in its care. Fox News noted that the first Trump administration closed the government’s largest cat experimentation lab in 2019 and that the Environmental Protection Agency would reinstate a policy from Trump’s first term to phase out animal testing. Glenn Greenwald (Center) interviewed White Coat executive Justin Goodman about the group's effort over the years and bipartisan nature of the cause.

Written by the AllSides staff (of humans). Learn more. Support our mission. Suggest an improvement to this summary.