• A disturbing new investigation by White Coat Waste (WCW) has uncovered shocking videos and documents from a taxpayer-funded laboratory at the State University of New York’s (SUNY) Upstate Medical University, where baby rabbits are bred to suffer—and die—from violent seizures while being recorded. 
• According to documents obtained by WCW through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has wasted more than $1.1 million on a project that intentionally breeds rabbits to experience sudden unexpected death in epilepsy.  
• The NIH-funded experiment will breed and kill 230 rabbits, all before nine months of age and some just weeks old. 
• Despite causing the rabbits to experience violent and deadly seizures, the lab claimed in grant documents, “We do not anticipate any pain or distress.” 
• The SUNY lab was cited last year for violations of federal animal welfare law.
• The project began in 2023 and received another $405,000 in funding in April 2025 under NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and Acting Deputy Director Nicole Kleinstreuer, who claim to be “working tirelessly” to reduce animal testing. 

WCW has been relentlessly exposing how the NIH, under Director Jay Bhattacharya and ‘animal testing czar’ Nicole Kleinstreuer, continues to dole out tens of millions of dollars in new funding for dog, cat, and primate labs, despite promises to “phase out” animal testing. 

But these animals aren’t the only victims of the Bhattacharya-Kleinstreuer regime. 

A disturbing new WCW investigation has uncovered shocking videos and documents from an NIH-funded laboratory at SUNY’s Upstate Medical University, where baby rabbits are bred to suffer—and die—from violent seizures while being recorded. 

According to documents obtained by WCW through the FOIA, the NIH has wasted more than $1.1 million on a project that intentionally breeds rabbits to experience sudden unexpected death in epilepsy.

FOIA records detail how NIH-funded experimenters create genetically engineered “mutant” rabbits who suffer spontaneous, uncontrollable “epileptic seizures and seizure-mediated sudden death.” The lab also intentionally induces seizures in some rabbits by injecting them with drugs, exposing them to flashing lights, and forcing them to hyperventilate. 

The NIH-funded experiment will breed and kill 230 rabbits, all before nine months of age and some just weeks old.  Records show that many of the rabbits die of “fatal convulsive seizures.”

The approved grant application describes how the animals will experience convulsions, cardiac arrest, and “sudden onset of rigor” during fatal seizures.  

One video uncovered by WCW’s investigation shows a two-week-old rabbit convulsing and dying, while heartless NIH-funded experimenters record the entire event. 

Despite the clear suffering being inflicted on these rabbits with our tax dollars, SUNY’s NIH-approved grant application claimed, “We do not anticipate any pain or distress.” Last year, this SUNY lab was cited for violations of federal law for not addressing “potentially distressful and harmful procedural events.” 

NIH grant documents state that SUNY will collaborate on the rabbit experiments with New York University, the University of Utah, and the University of Michigan. 

This wasteful and inhumane project began in 2023 and received another $405,000 in funding in April 2025, awarded by the NIH under Bhattacharya and Kleinstreuer. In addition to the grant records already obtained from the NIH, WCW has requested documents directly from SUNY.

Is this how you want your money spent?