Trump's NIH director said agency 'got rid' of all beagle experiments on campus. Here's what we know
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways
In early May 2025, claims (archived) circulated that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration shut down a National Institutes of Health laboratory accused of killing beagles in the name of medical research.
One popular X post, viewed more than 76,000 times at the time of this writing, read: "NEW: The Trump administration's NIH under Jay Bhattacharya has just closed its "brutal" beagle experimentation laboratory - Fox It was accused of 'brutally k*lling thousands of beagles for 40+ years.'"
The claim also appeared on Facebook (archived), Threads (archived), Reddit (archived) and TikTok (archived).
Trump-appointed NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said during a "Fox and Friends" interview on May 4 that "we got rid of all the beagle experiments on the NIH campus." Animal welfare groups celebrated the announcement, which they said included the NIH's last confirmed dog lab that carried out sepsis testing on beagles at the agency's campus in Bethesda, Maryland.
However, Bhattacharya did not give further details on how or when he shut down beagle experiments at the NIH's campus. Bodies that carry out animal testing rarely publicly advertise this fact, meaning that we also could not independently confirm animal welfare groups' claims that the sepsis testing lab was the last lab at NIH Bethesda carrying out experiments on beagles.
We reached out to the NIH to confirm if and when experiments on beagles had ended, how many labs were affected and what would happen to the animals currently in the agency's care. We await a reply.
According to the White Coat Waste Project, a self-described bipartisan government watchdog seeking to end animal testing by the U.S. government, Bhattacharya's announcement brought an end to an almost 10-year-long campaign by the group to close what it called "the U.S. government's largest dog lab."
The watchdog group claimed the lab "killed more than 2,133 beagles in brutal septic shock experiments." Sepsis occurs in humans when the immune system overreacts to an infection. It can cause organ failure and is life-threatening. Sepsis shock is the last stage of sepsis.
The group's investigation included an invoice from the animal breeder Envigo that showed it shipped beagles to the NIH in Bethesda. Envigo pleaded guilty to animal welfare and environmental crimes in 2024 and faced a $35 million fine. The company surrendered more than 4,000 beagles from its facility after federal regulators found it failed to provide adequate care for the animals.
Snopes has not independently verified the claims in the watchdog group's investigation.
Bhattacharya's announcement followed an NIH news release on April 29 in which the agency said it would prioritize "human-based research technologies" going forward and move away from animal testing.
Bhattacharya said on "Fox and Friends" (at 2:33):
I put out a policy to make sure that when we use — when we have animals in research, that we look at alternatives. You know, it's very easy, for instance, to cure Alzheimer's in mice. But that doesn't — those things don't translate to humans. So we've put forward a policy to replace animals in research with other technological advances — AI and other tools — that translate better to human health. But then I'm getting — we got rid of all the beagle experiments on the NIH campus.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in April 2025 that it would phase out animal testing as well.
Snopes previously reported on whether the Environmental Protection Agency revived a promise from Trump's first term to end animal testing.
Sources:
"Contact Us." National Institutes of Health (NIH), 19 Dec. 2014, https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/contact-us.
McDonald, Allison. "WCW Investigation: NIH's Septic Shock Dog Lab (UPDATED)." White Coat Waste Project, 28 Feb. 2025, https://blog.whitecoatwaste.org/2025/02/28/wcw-investigation-nihs-septic-shock-dog-experiments/.
"NIH to Prioritize Human-Based Research Technologies." National Institutes of Health (NIH), 29 Apr. 2025, https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-prioritize-human-based-research-technologies.
Office of the Commissioner. "FDA Announces Plan to Phase Out Animal Testing Requirement for Monoclonal Antibodies and Other Drugs." FDA, 10 Apr. 2025, https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-announces-plan-phase-out-animal-testing-requirement-monoclonal-antibodies-and-other-drugs.
PETA Staff. PETA Breakthrough! NIH Embraces Modern, Human-Relevant Sepsis Research. 5 May 2025, https://www.peta.org/blog/nih-funds-humane-sepsis-research/.
Roush, Ty. "Animal Breeder Envigo Fined Record-Setting $35 Million Over Mistreating Thousands Of Beagles." Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2024/06/03/animal-breeder-envigo-fined-record-setting-35-million-over-mistreating-thousands-of-beagles/. Accessed 6 May 2025.
"Septic Shock: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment." Cleveland Clinic, https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23255-septic-shock. Accessed 6 May 2025.
"We Got Rid of All the Beagle Experiments on the NIH Campus, Says Dr. Jay Bhattacharya | Fox News Video." Fox News, 5 May 2025, https://www.foxnews.com/video/6372346099112.
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