• White Coat Waste has filed four new lawsuits against the National Institutes of Health demanding that it turn over records related to $600 million in recent and active grants and contracts paying for wasteful and inhumane testing on dogs and cats in the US and overseas. 
• The documents requested by WCW under the Freedom of Information Act cover NIH-funded experiments—including Fauci-era projects—that entail implanting electrodes in beagles’ brains, crippling cats, poisoning puppies, infesting pets with biting insects, damaging dogs’ hearts, and other abuses. 
• WCW is also seeking records related to the retirement of animals from NIH’s in-house labs after WCW successfully prompted the agency to enact an animal adoption policy in 2019. 
• WCW’s FOIA lawsuits cover 15 separate requests that the NIH has been sitting on from anywhere between four months and over a year. 
• Despite claiming that it is “working tirelessly” to “phase out” testing on dogs and cats, the NIH under Jay Bhattacharya and Nicole Kleinstreuer continues to renew existing grants and dole out millions for brand new grants and contracts to abuse puppies and kittens. 

As White Coat Waste has been exposing, under Director Jay Bhattacharya and Acting Deputy Director Nicole Kleinstreuer, the National Institutes of Health has been renewing Fauci-era grants for cruel dog and cat experiments.   

Despite falsely claiming—in direct response to relentless campaigning from WCW—that the problem “predates” them and that they are “working tirelessly” to “phase out” testing on dogs and cats, Bhattacharya and Kleinstreuer’s NIH is also doling out millions in brand new grants and contracts to abuse puppies and kittens in laboratories. It’s Bhattacharya’s BeagleGate.

On their watch, even though Bhattacharya promised Congress he would prioritize transparency, the NIH continues to violate the law by withholding documents related to barbaric dog and cat experiments that WCW is investigating. 

Now, WCW has filed four new Freedom of Information Act lawsuits against the NIH demanding that it turn over records related to $600 million in recent and active grants and contracts paying for wasteful and inhumane testing on pets in the U.S. and in foreign countries.

WCW’s FOIA lawsuits cover 15 separate requests that the NIH has been sitting on from anywhere between four months and over a year. WCW—and taxpayers—are tired of waiting. 

The documents demanded by WCW will shed light on recent and active NIH-funded experiments on dogs and cats that entail: 

• Infesting dogs and cats with biting flies and parasites  
• Feeding dogs unhealthy diets to cause “acute liver dysfunction” and then killing them 
• Drilling into cats’ skulls, removing parts of their brains, and locking them in restraint devices for coughing experiments 
• Breeding beagles to suffer from deadly bleeding disorders and experimenting on them 
• Inducing irregular heartbeats, heart failure, heart scarring, and other deadly cardiac disorders in dogs 
• Breeding cats to suffer from debilitating brain and movement disorders 
• Crippling cats with spinal cords injuries and forcing them to walk on treadmills 
• Implanting electrodes and other devices into beagles’ brains for sleep experiments 
• Implanting cancer cells into healthy dogs 
• Slicing dogs’ tendons and killing them to test experimental surgeries 
• Force-feeding beagles experimental drugs in toxicity tests 

Some of the documents are related to ongoing dog testing at the same for-hire animal lab that Dr. Fauci infamously paid to cut beagles vocal cords and the University of Georgia lab he paid to infest puppies with flies.

WCW’s FOIA lawsuit demands documents about NIH funding for a lab that infests dogs and cats with biting flies and parasites.

Records covered by WCW’s lawsuit are related to ongoing WCW investigations into NIH-funded labs at Vanderbilt University, University of Cincinnati, Indiana University, University of Florida, Johns Hopkins University, Case Western University, University of Utah, Temple University, University of Pittsburgh, Mayo Clinic, and others. 

WCW’s FOIA lawsuits also seek records related to the retirement of dozens of animals from NIH’s in-house labs after WCW successfully prompted the agency to enact a lab animal retirement policy in 2019. 

WCW’s FOIA lawsuit demands documents about NIH funding for a lab that damages cats’ spinal cords and forces them to walk on treadmills.

The NIH divisions funding the dog and cat experiments covered by WCW’s lawsuit are the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. 

WCW follows the money, but we can’t defund what we can’t find.  

Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent!