WCW INVESTIGATION: NIH Wastes $46M+ to blind dogs at UPenn (UPDATED)
- White Coat Waste (WCW) has uncovered that the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) has been breeding and maintaining a colony of dogs with genetic vision disorders for nearly 50 years, wasting over $46 million in taxpayer money.
- As recently as January 2026, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) paid a UPenn lab to breed dogs with degenerative eye disorders, inject experimental treatments into their eyes, and force them through dark obstacle courses while recording their attempts to escape.
- UPenn has been selling these disabled dogs, dead and alive, for decades, attempting to “satisfy demand” that requires “appropriate funding”.
- Dogs who survive the experiments are usually killed and dissected regardless, including the breeder dogs when they can no longer reproduce.
- UPenn violated federal law by failing to disclose NIH funding in public statements about these experiments.
- The NIH is the country’s single largest funder of cruel dog testing, and WCW is on a mission to defund it for good.
- WCW is the only animal protection group to close federal dog labs in almost 20 years.
UPDATE (1/31/26): Citing White Coat Waste’s investigation into the NIH’s renewed funding for UPenn’s dog lab, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) fired off a letter to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., demanding that he cut this and all other NIH funding for current and future dog and cat experiments.
UPDATE (1/26/26): White Coat Waste’s ongoing investigation has uncovered that, on January 12, 2026, the NIH sent another $826,381 in taxpayer funding to UPenn’s wasteful and cruel blind dog breeding and experimentation lab under the leadership of NIH’s ‘animal testing czar’ Deputy Director Nicole Kleinstreuer.
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ORIGINAL POST (4/21/25)
White Coat Waste exposed how the University of Pennsylvania operates a massive taxpayer-funded puppy mill, breeding dogs to suffer from various debilitating genetic diseases before subjecting them to deadly experiments.
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Now, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), WCW has just uncovered ghastly new details about UPenn’s expansive, expensive, and deplorable purpose-bred puppy torture.
Our latest investigation reveals that for over four decades, and with TENS of MILLIONS of tax dollars, National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded white coats at UPenn have been deliberately breeding a colony of dogs to suffer from severe vision disorders.
Since the 1970’s, white coats at UPenn have deliberately bred puppies with genetic retinal disorders, causing them to suffer from rapidly degenerating vision. Once the dogs develop vision impairment, NIH-funded white coats inject experimental treatments directly into their eyeballs.
The torment doesn’t end there.
UPenn subjects these vision-impaired dogs to 20 minutes of complete darkness before forcing them to navigate obstacle courses in various lighting conditions. These cruel tests are captured on video, documenting the confused and disoriented victims attempting to find their way through.
In some cases, white coats deliberately intensify the dogs’ impaired vision by glaring lights directly into their eyes. Some dogs are raised in “chronic light exposure,” or “chronic light deprivation.”
Some dogs have their eyes surgically removed while still alive, while others are killed before dissection. The eyes and other tissues are then sliced and diced for further examination.
The scale of suffering at this taxpayer-funded puppy mill is staggering. According to documentation obtained by WCW, in recent years UPenn has confined hundreds of dogs for these experiments.
Even more alarming are the animal welfare violations uncovered at this facility. In one case, a dog who had been used in the retinal disorder breeding colony was attacked by other dogs and killed.
These dogs are not seen as living, feeling beings – they are just numbers to be traded and sold between labs like merchandise, dead or alive.
It. Gets. Sicker.
They are KILLING the breeder dogs when “their useful reproductive life is past.” Perfectly adoptable dogs being slaughtered on our dime. For decades.
NIH funding for this house of horrors has been astronomical. Since the 1990s, taxpayers have been forced to pay more than $46 MILLION to fund these cruel experiments through multiple NIH grants.
Making matters worse, UPenn recently violated federal law by failing to disclose this NIH funding in public statements about these experiments. In January 2024, the university published an article about their “promising model for restoring cone function” but neglected to mention the millions in taxpayer dollars used to torture these dogs.
WCW has filed a federal complaint about this violation and is demanding that project be defunded.
Cutting funding for all cruel dog and cat experiments is on the top of our priority list for the Trump Administration and DOGE.
Is this how you want your money spent?
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