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After years of PETA pressure, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has prioritized non-animal research and begun to move away from funding experiments on animals. That’s a big deal—and it’s a step in the right direction.
But NIH is still sending millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars overseas to fund experiments on animals in other countries—with no oversight.
In an experiment similar to those funded by NIH, a “donor” pig is cut open, and their lungs removed. Then, a “recipient” pig is cut open, his lungs removed, and the lungs from the “donor” pig are transplanted. Three days after the transplant surgery, experimenters kept the “recipient” pig alive while they took images and samples, cut him open, and removed his bowels and stomach contents as well as tissues and organs, and finally let him bleed to death. NIH’s continued funding of experiments like this is a waste of American taxpayers’ money.
Between 2011 and 2021, NIH gave out $2.2 billion to nearly 200 foreign organizations in 45 countries for experiments on animals. NIH doesn’t inspect the labs, doesn’t send anyone to check on the animals, and doesn’t even verify if the information in grant applications is true. They’re basically handing out money and hoping for the best.
That’s not just risky, it’s irresponsible.
NIH must continue its move toward ethical and effective science, and the next logical step is to end funding for experiments on animals in other countries. And it must be every other country, not just a few.
PETA Exposes NIH-Funded Misconduct
PETA exposed fraudulent Colombian malaria experimenters to whom NIH gave more than $17 million between 2003 and 2023. The Caucaseco Scientific Research Center and the Malaria Vaccine and Drug Development Center in Colombia conducted experiments on mice, owl monkeys, and humans. Local authorities shut both down after PETA’s exposé of animal abuse and research misconduct.
But even after we alerted NIH, the agency dragged its feet for another six months before finally shutting off the flow of money.
NIH has supported worldwide animal torture and death since the 1980s, bankrolling some of the most vile and pointless experiments in the world:
- NIH gave Australian experimenters nearly half a million dollars to poison beagles with a horrible herbicide. All the dogs endured miserable deaths within a week.
- NIH paid French experimenters to blind monkeys.
- In Tunisia, NIH paid to have rabbits used as bait for sandflies.
- The agency paid U.K. experimenters to addict rats to cocaine.
- In Finland, NIH-funded experimenters restrained fully awake rats while poking 500 electrodes in their brains and forced them to live like this for months.
A full list of the gruesome experiments NIH has funded is here.
What You Can Do
TAKE ACTION below and politely urge NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to stop funding all experiments on animals in all foreign countries.
After you take action, you’ll see an easy way to share this information. Please ask five friends or relatives to support this campaign!