Experimenters Burned Rats, Injected Dogs in Cruel Military-Funded Laboratories Abroad

PETA has discovered that the U.S. Department of War has funded experimenters in numerous foreign laboratories to burn rats, give dogs heart disease, cut open octopuses, and more in cruel and pointless tests, all on the American taxpayers’ dime.

We’re now urging the Pentagon to immediately end waste, fraud, and abuse by banning the funding of all overseas experiments on animals and fully auditing these failed, outdated programs. Please join our call!

U.S. Military Funds Global Torment

From 2019 to 2026, the U.S. Department of War has paid foreign laboratories more than $21 million for useless experiments on animals that don’t advance human health, according to public records obtained by PETA.

• James Cook University in Australia received $600,000 to burn rats. Experimenters shaved the rats and plunged them into near-boiling water for eight seconds, inflicting third-degree burns on more than 30 percent of their bodies before removing half of their livers, causing internal bleeding. Experimenters kept them alive, conscious, and suffering for 24 hours before killing them.

• Recce Pharmaceuticals in Australia received $2 million to inflict severe thermal burns and dangerous bacterial infections on rats and pigs to test wound gels.
• The University of Queensland in Australia received $1.2 million to subject pigs to severe traumatic hemorrhage to test a venom-derived clotting gel.
• The University of Melbourne in Australia received nearly $700,000 to implant magnetic stents into major brain veins of sheep in experiments meant to stimulate and monitor brain activity. After these invasive procedures, the animals are killed so their brain and blood vessel tissues can be collected.
• Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel received $300,000 to mount invasive “computational systems” on the heads of goldfish.
• The Italian Institute of Technology in Italy received $298,000 to slice up the arms of living octopuses.
• The University of Antofagasta in Chile received $173,000 to subject rats to a battery of highly invasive "spaceflight" simulations. After undergoing multiple surgeries to implant internal tracking devices and viral vectors, the rats were suspended by their tails for weeks to force an unnatural redistribution of blood flow. While enduring this restriction, the animals were subjected to extreme oxygen manipulation, forced treadmill running, and nerve-blocking drugs before being killed and dissected.
• The University of Alberta in Canada received $429,000 to subject dogs to procedures that cause heart disease, repeated injections, and muscle deterioration.
• Atuka Research Institute in Canada received $1.5 million to perform invasive brain surgeries on female monkeys, injecting them with engineered viruses to deliberately cause severe movement problems like involuntary muscle spasms. The monkeys suffered these symptoms for months before being killed and dissected.
• The University of British Columbia in Canada received $1.1 million to subject Yucatan mini pigs to paralyzing thoracic spinal cord injuries and multiple invasive surgeries to implant sacral neuromodulation systems and bladder sensors, forcing them to endure 13 weeks of electrical stimulation. The university also received $525,000 to surgically attach donor skin and entire hind legs onto genetically altered mice and inject them with engineered immune cells and powerful drugs before killing them for analysis. Another $1.7 million funded experimenters at the university who crushed and damaged mini‑pigs’ spinal cords, deprived them of oxygen, artificially controlled their blood pressure, and inserted tubes directly into their spines before killing them. The University of British Columbia also received more than $4.2 million to use pigs in risky blood‑testing experiments meant to support battlefield transfusions. An additional $1.7 million paid for university experimenters to cause severe spinal cord injuries in rats and subject them to prolonged electrical stimulation and invasive monitoring.
• McGill University in Canada received more than $5.8 million to blind rats by damaging their optic nerves and use them in drug‑testing experiments.
• Sunnybrook Research Institute in Canada received more than $824,000 to deliberately damage rats’ hearing nerves and expose them to ultrasound‑guided gene therapy experiments targeting the inner ear. The animals are monitored over time and then killed for tissue analysis.

What You Can Do

Please TAKE ACTION and urge Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to cut waste, fraud, and abuse by banning the Pentagon from funding foreign experiments on animals.

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