Report: NIH Under Investigation for Purchasing $1.2M in Beagles for ‘Cruel Experiments’

PETA senior vice president of cruelty investigations Daphna Nachminovitch accused the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of being involved in a $1.2 million contract to purchase beagles for “cruel experiments,” Fox News reported. 

While being interviewed on Tucker Carlson Tonight on Tuesday, Nachminovitch said the latest alleged violation is from Envigo, a Virginia-based supplier accused of “providing nearly 5,000 beagle dogs and puppies to the NIH and other labs to be confined and tortured.”

“During a PETA investigator’s visit, more than 360 dogs were allegedly found dead,” according to the report. 

Nachminovitch continued, noting that the Department of Agriculture has reportedly cited the NIH for “hideous” warehouse conditions.

“They have been cited … for direct and critical violations,” she said. “For failure to provide basic necessities of life to these nursing mother dogs and their puppies, keeping animals in temperatures as high as 92 degrees without air conditioning, plunging needles into the heads of puppies to drain hematomas … and so much more.”

Nachminovitch told the outlet the investigation is still underway, adding that the “cruel experiments” are paid for by taxpayer dollars. 

The executive said that beagles are allegedly the “breed of choice” because they are “easy to torture,” the report states. 

“Beagles are small and docile,” she said. “They’re such gentle, loyal dogs, and unfortunately they are so submissive that they’re easy to torture without posing a public safety risk to their abusers.”

In October, a non-profit organization called White Coat Waste Project accused Dr. Fauci and the NIH of partially funding experiments in Tunisia, North Africa, that locked beagles’ heads in cages while hordes of hungry sandflies ate them alive.

The non-profit also said it obtained documents through a FOIA request showing that the NIH, led by Fauci, gave Kansas State University $536,311 go conduct an experiment involving hundreds of ticks feasting on live beagle puppies injected with mutant bacteria.

Fauci’s office received thousands of angry phone calls following reports of the beagle puppy experiments — in one 36-hour period in October, Fauci’s office received 3,600 phone calls. According to the Washington Post, “his assistant quit answering the phone for two weeks.”

Following the White Coat Waste reports, the journal labeling NIAID as a funder issued a correction on Oct. 26, saying the agency was listed by mistake.

White Coat Waste spokesman Justin Goodman called the correction “too convenient.” Fauci,  however, told the Post the “constant harassment” and “outright lies” are making his job even more difficult while “fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.”

In a tweet, PETA called on the NIAID director to resign. According to Nachminovitch, the NIH spends $19.6 billion a year on animal experimentation.