The U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) is continuing to fund controversial research on dogs and cats, despite promising to move away from using animal testing. On April 29, NIH director Jay Bhattacharya announced the nation’s medical research agency would reduce testing on animals because “differences in anatomy, physiology, lifespan, and disease characteristics” meant findings could not always be applied to humans. Animal rights groups including PETA celebrated the move after long criticizing animal testing as a “cruel” and “pointless.” However, animal rights watchdog White Coat Waste (WCW) has obtained documents showing that the NIH has poured millions of taxpayer dollars into experiments on dogs since the announcement was made. According to the documents, the NIH has approved nine new grants on dog research and extended around nine existing grants, totaling to $42 million. The experiments include toxicology tests that inject beagles with cocaine and other substances. WCW senior vice-president Justin Goodman pointed out the hypocrisy to The Guardian. “Trump hates waste and animal experimentation is the poster child for wasteful spending,” Goodman said, adding that animal labs account for at least 40 percent of NIH spending, which include 193 ongoing dog and cat studies that cost around $1.3 billion. The Daily Beast has reached out to the NIH for comment.
The post NIH Caught Testing on Dogs Despite Promising It Wouldn’t appeared first on The Daily Beast