The National Institutes of Health has come under fire for continuing to fund experiments on dogs and cats, despite leadership's recent pledge to reduce reliance on animal testing. In April, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya announced a push toward "human-based technologies" in research, citing the shortcomings of animal studies in predicting human outcomes for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's. Since then, however, the NIH has quietly approved millions of dollars in funding for new dog and cat experiments, raising questions about its commitment to ending animal testing, the Guardian reports.
According to project records and documents obtained by watchdog group White Coat Waste via public records requests, the NIH has approved at least nine new grants for dog research since April—at a cost of more than $12 million—and extended another nine ongoing projects, bringing the total study costs for dog research to $42 million. In all, the agency is reportedly backing roughly 193 active studies involving dogs and cats, with a total price tag of about $1.3 billion.
Some of the recently funded experiments described by WCW involve testing drugs for methamphetamine addiction and running cardiovascular studies that inject beagles with cocaine, sometimes in combination with other drugs. Another trial involves infecting beagle puppies with viruses using containers of ticks, with pain relief sometimes withheld.
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WCW says these experiments are wasteful and outdated, arguing that "95% of drugs tested on animals fail in human trials." NIH officials counter that a shift is underway: future funding will emphasize human-relevant data and advanced lab methods instead of animal models. The agency says it will no longer issue funding calls exclusively for animal research, and a new office has been established to expand alternative research methods.
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