U.S. Representative Greg Steube (R-Fla.) introduced the Protecting Dogs Subjected to Experiments Act on Tuesday.
This legislation would prohibit taxpayer funding of any biological, medical, or behavioral research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that involves the use of a dog.
“The NIH uses over $40 billion in taxpayer dollars annually to fund its research projects, including many recent, cruel examples using dogs. Americans don’t want to enable the heinous abuse inflicted on puppies and dogs in the name of research. My legislation will cut every dime of NIH’s federal funding for these ruthless dog experiments,” said Rep. Greg Steube.
In October of 2021, a half-dozen Republican senators, led by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, demanded answers from Dr. Anthony Fauci over the “inhumane experiments” Fauci’s agency conducted on beagle puppies, dubbed “Beaglegate.”
The letter was issued on the same day that the White Coat Waste Project, or WCW, revealed a fifth experiment on dogs conducted by Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID.
In the research, according to WCW, the NIAID paid to have 6-month-old beagle puppies injected with a “mutant” variant of a tick-transmitted bacteria that was manufactured in a lab.
Within days of being infected, researchers unleashed up to 250 ticks to feast on each dog for up to a week. The puppies’ blood is then tested twice a week, for eight weeks.
After which, the dogs are killed.
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The WCW says up to 138 dogs could have been killed during this research since 2008. The experiment, which has cost taxpayers $5.6 million so far, is expected to run for another three years.
The experiment was to better understand how the ticks spread a bacteria called ehrlichiosis, which according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, affected about 2,100 people in 2019. The illness, which causes fever, chills, severe headaches, muscle aches, and nausea, kills about 1 percent of the people it infects.
The NIAID spent $1.7 million for research involving 44 beagle puppies between six and eight months old. The canines were repeatedly injected with, or force-fed, an experimental drug and then were killed and dissected, according to WCW.
WCW also reported that the dogs’ vocal cords were cut so their barking could not be heard during the tests.
What made the research troubling is that the Food and Drug Administration recommended against it, since the agency does not advocate using dogs for experiments involving human drugs.
The legislation filed by Rep. Steube, on Tuesday, is praised by the White Coat Waste project.
“We applaud Congressman Steube for introducing the Protecting Dogs Subjected to Experiments Act and for his outstanding work to ensure taxpayers aren’t forced to pay for cruel, unnecessary and wasteful NIH testing on puppies and dogs. As White Coat Waste Project’s #BeagleGate investigations have revealed, NIH-funded white coats are wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to inject puppies with cocaine, de-bark and poison dogs, infest beagles with flies and ticks, and force dogs to suffer septic shock. A supermajority of Americans across the political spectrum want Congress to cut NIH’s wasteful spending on dog experiments. The solution is clear: stop the money. stop the madness.” said Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy at White Coat Waste Project.
Rep. Steube’s family includes their four rescue dogs, Luke, Leia, Chance, and Matty. Rep. Steube has fought throughout his career to end cruel animal experiments, including:
- Authoring a letter to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the NIH demanding an explanation after reports surfaced that Fauci authorized experiments where infectious sand flies were strapped to beagles to feed on them for months before the beagles were killed.
- Cosigning a letter urging Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro and Ranking Member Tom Cole to cut taxpayer funding to Russian labs, including Putin’s Cat Lab, prior to their work on the Fiscal Year 2023 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill. The committee later voted to defund all research labs in adversarial countries including China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
- Championed numerous pieces of legislation to protect animals from cruelty and abuse in the Florida State Legislature.
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