The National Institutes of Health division led by Dr. Anthony Fauci is slated to spend nearly $2 million to force feed puppies with experimental allergy drugs, according to a government watchdog group.
NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is helmed by Fauci, allocated $1,836,453 in taxpayer dollars for a contractor to test an experimental hay fever drug on mice, rats, and dogs, including puppies, according to the funding documents, which were obtained by the White Coat Waste Project and provided to the Washington Free Beacon. The most severe symptoms of hay fever, also known as seasonal allergies, are a runny nose and sneezing.
The documents, which were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and are highly redacted, show that the division requested at least five separate experiments on dogs that are likely to include force-feeding them experimental drugs for several months. While the contractor conducting the tests, Inimmune Corp., said guinea pigs could be used in place of dogs for some testing, purchasing "six-month old puppies" that would be exposed to allergens and then used for testing was also proposed.
NIH's animal experiments have become a flashpoint in Congress after it emerged earlier this year that the government spent $2.5 million injecting beagle puppies with cocaine, sparking a bipartisan investigation, which was first reported by the Free Beacon. The NIH also funds labs in Russia, even as it invades Ukraine, including one lab that conducted "horrific and barbaric experiments on 18 cats." The disclosure of the latest funding tranche is likely to build momentum for legislation called the Preventing Animal Abuse and Waste Act that would bar NIAID from conducting these types of dog experiments.
"Fauci's white coats at NIAID have forced taxpayers to pay millions to de-bark and poison puppies, infest beagles with ticks and flies, and, now, needlessly torture puppies to test a new drug to treat a runny nose," Devin Murphy, White Coat Waste Project's public policy and communications manager, told the Free Beacon. "Even NIAID's own contractor acknowledges that the dog testing demanded by Fauci's agency is unnecessary because alternative animal models are available."
The latest animal experiment grant, which began on September 1, 2021, and is slated to end in August 2023, indicates that NIAID attempted to purchase "allergic dogs" from a supplier, but ran into supply roadblocks. "Unfortunately, all of the allergic dogs from the [redacted] have not been available," the documents state. "Six-month old puppies" were proposed as an alternative solution, though it is unclear if NIH went forward with that suggestion.
NIAID's contractor, Inimmune Corp., suggested guinea pigs be used "instead of dog studies," according to the documents, indicating that dog experiments were unnecessary and raising questions about the government's desire to use them as lab subjects. This proposal was under consideration as of January 2022.
White Coat Waste Project is challenging the redactions in the documents and has submitted follow-up requests to obtain information on the experiments.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R., S.C.), who is spearheading the PAAW Act and investigating NIH for its animal experiments, told the Free Beacon that U.S. taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill for "unnecessary and cruel" government tests.
"Americans across the political spectrum have been horrified to learn their tax dollars are being used to subsidize NIAID's barbaric experiments on beagle puppies," Mace said in a statement. "I'm proud to be leading the bipartisan PAAW Act to ensure taxpayer money is not used to support outdated, unnecessary and cruel experiments on dogs."