Transgender Lab Rats and Poisoned Puppies: Oversight of Taxpayer Funded Animal Cruelty

House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation

2025-02-06

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Source: Congress.gov

Summary

The meeting of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation convened to discuss wasteful government spending on animal cruelty and the need for innovation in scientific research methods . Witnesses from the White Coat Waste Project, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine testified on the ethical, financial, and scientific concerns surrounding federal animal testing programs [ 00:33:24-00:33:52 ]

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. The discussion highlighted significant issues with current animal experimentation practices and explored viable alternatives [ 00:32:37 ]

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Themes

Wasteful and Ineffective Animal Experimentation

The federal government is identified as the largest funder of animal testing globally, spending over $20 billion annually on what are described as inhumane, inefficient, and often dangerous experiments . A significant concern raised was the low success rate of animal models, with 90% of drugs successful in animal tests failing in human clinical trials due to fundamental biological differences [ 00:31:31 ]

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. Specific examples of controversial, taxpayer-funded experiments included the creation of "transgender mice, rats, and monkeys" to study fertility, drug overdose susceptibility, and HIV vulnerability, often involving surgical mutation and hormone therapies [ 00:28:06-00:31:17 ]

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. Other cited instances of cruel tests ranged from injecting puppies with cocaine and staging hamster fight clubs to force-feeding kittens cat meat in "cannibalism experiments" and electroshocking cats . Dr. Fauci's NIAID was frequently mentioned as responsible for a large portion of this funding, including 95% of "transgender animal experiments" and beagle tests .

Lack of Transparency and Oversight

There is a significant lack of transparency regarding the scope and nature of federally funded animal experiments . Agencies reportedly do not adequately track how much money is spent, how many animals are used, or what outcomes are achieved, often requiring organizations like the White Coat Waste Project to file hundreds of FOIA requests for basic information . A critical issue is that many animals, such as mice, rats, and birds bred for research, are not classified as "animals" under the Animal Welfare Act, meaning they are not counted in official statistics [ 01:22:32 ]

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. Additionally, the oversight of NIH funding to foreign animal labs is severely lacking, with audits revealing billions sent without proper tracking or site visits .

Innovative Alternatives and the Path Forward

The meeting emphasized the potential of advanced technologies as ethical, accurate, and efficient alternatives to animal testing [ 00:32:46 ]

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. These innovations include artificial intelligence, 3D bioprinting, robotics, organs-on-a-chip, microphysiological systems, and organoids, which can more accurately model human biology and disease [ 00:32:40 ]

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. Speakers called for federal agencies to take a leading, rather than passive, role in supporting the development and validation of these human-centric methods . Recommendations included ending federal support for wasteful animal research, reinvesting those savings into human-based approaches, and amending legislation like the Animal Welfare Act to include all animals in reporting requirements .

National Security and Foreign Funding Concerns

The discussion also touched upon national security risks associated with U.S. taxpayer funding of animal research in foreign countries. Concerns were raised that dangerous gain-of-function experiments funded by the U.S. at the Wuhan lab may have contributed to the COVID-19 pandemic . It was highlighted that 26 animal labs in China, some tied to the Chinese Communist Party and military, and 344 labs in 52 foreign countries still receive NIH funding with minimal oversight . A specific contract funding the injection and force-feeding of 300 beagles weekly in a Chinese lab, chosen for their "docile, cute" nature rather than scientific effectiveness, was cited as a grave misuse of funds and a potential security threat .

Tone of the Meeting

The tone of the meeting was largely one of profound concern and disgust regarding the revealed animal testing practices [ 00:30:10 ]

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. Speakers expressed urgency for reform, emphasizing that the practices are not only morally reprehensible but also scientifically ineffective and a waste of taxpayer money . Despite the gravity of the topic, there was a strong emphasis on the bipartisan nature of the issue, with members expressing a desire to work collaboratively across the aisle to address these problems . There was also a sense of hope and optimism regarding the potential of alternative technologies to replace animal testing, portraying them as a path to more accurate, ethical, and efficient scientific research [ 00:32:46 ]

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Participants

Transcript

Thank you.
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Good afternoon, everyone.  The Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation will now come to order and welcome a good afternoon.  Without objection, the chair may declare a recess at any time.  I recognize myself for the purpose of making an opening statement.  Good afternoon.  Late last year, the White Coat Waste Project exposed more than $10 million in taxpayer funds that were spent creating transgender mice, rats, and monkeys.   These DEI grants funded painful and deadly transgender experiments that forced lab animals to undergo invasive surgeries and hormone therapies at universities across the country.  For example, the Biden-Harris administration spent 2.5 million taxpayer dollars, 2.5 million taxpayer dollars to study the fertility of transgender mice.   Let that sink in.  We spent over $2 million studying the fertility of transgender mice.  $1.1 million was spent to find out if female rats receiving testosterone therapies to mimic transgender men were more likely to overdose on a party drug commonly used in the LGBTQ community to induce drug fueled what's called, quote, chem sex.  I asked my staff what was chem sex and the chemical, and I guess it's something called GHB, which is a date rape drug.   and also a drug that's used recreationally.  So we spent over a million dollars to find out if female rats receiving testosterone therapy were more likely to overdose on a date rape drug.  That's what your taxpayer dollars were being spent on.  Federal funds were also used to forcibly transition male monkeys to see if hormone therapy made them more susceptible to HIV.   I didn't know this until recently, but monkeys cannot be infected with HIV.
Yet this federally funded experiment forced them to take hormone altering drugs to study a virus they cannot have.  The Biden-Harris administration was so eager to propagate their radical gender ideology across all facets of American society that they were surgically mutating animal genitals.  Like taxpayer money went to that.   So my question is, were they castrating mice, castrating monkeys?  Were they getting double mastectomies?  The language that they used in many of these experiments were, quote, gender affirming care, which I learned about three years ago what that meant.  I thought that was maybe just some hormones or something like that.  But apparently, gender affirming care is actually surgical mutilation of genitals.  And apparently, it's not just humans they're doing it to.  We were doing it with taxpayer dollars to animals.   It's well known that because of the differences between animal and human biology, animal testing frequently does not produce results relevant for humans.  In fact, 90% of novel drugs that are successful in animal tests fail in human clinical trials.  Today's scientific questions are so complex that we have well surpassed the time where it is useful or appropriate to rely on inhumane animal experiments to answer them.   Recently developed technological tools can more accurately model human biology and identify solutions that are more useful for human patients.  But it is often the federal bureaucracy that prevents these new technologies from being used.  Instead of adequately investing in these innovative alternatives, the federal government has continued to funnel taxpayer dollars towards cruel animal experiments.   Today, most of the 27 NIH institutes and centers conduct or support animal testing, as does the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S.  Department of Agriculture, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, and countless other agencies.   We have some beagle puppies here with us today.  Beagle puppies have gone through some of the worst medical experiments.
I mean drugging them with cocaine, having insects eat at them and their bodies so much until they die, drugging them until they die.   These are God's creatures and they're beautiful and you can see them sitting in the front row today.  So we thank the folks who are here and brought these beautiful beagle puppies here today.  In fact, the US government spends in excess of $20 billion a year conducting experiments on animals.   The White Coat Waste Project found in 2021 that the NIH, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a component of NIH at the time, ran by Dr. Fauci, spent $1.68 million for speeding toxic drugs to beagle puppies between six and eight months old before dissecting   and killing them.  The conversation we're having today is important.  In 2022, due to public criticism lobbied against Fauci's NAIAD by me and other members of Congress, another $1.8 million experiment to abuse beagle puppies and various drug tests was canceled.   So I want to thank the work of White Coat Waste and everyone in the room today, others who've been on the forefront of this fight to end the sick and cruel and barbaric testing of animals today.  Thanks to one of our witnesses, Justin Goodman of White Coat Waste.  We have in the audience, I already know the beagles are here.

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