National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya recently announced that the agency had shut down its last in-house beagle testing lab on its campus.
These medical experiments had resulted in the deaths of thousands of dogs.
The closure follows a recent announcement by Elon Musk, the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who said on social media that he would look into these experiments.
The NIH, headed by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, has shut down its last beagle testing lab
Image credits: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The White Coat Waste Project (WCW), a watchdog group focused on ending taxpayer-funded animal testing, claimed the NIH had subjected 2,133 beagles to painful and deadly sepsis experiments over the past 40 years.
The dogs were reportedly exposed to bacteria that caused pneumonia and septic shock before being killed.
WCW President Anthony Bellotti celebrated the lab’s closure, calling it a “landmark victory” in their long-running campaign.
He credited U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration for helping to phase out animal testing at federal agencies.
“This has been our top priority for the Trump Administration,” Bellotti said. “We applaud the President for cutting this wasteful NIH spending. The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness.”
Over 2,000 beagles have been victims to painful and deadly sepsis experiments at the NIH facility
Soon after Trump took office, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in April that it would start phasing out animal testing for antibody therapies and other drugs, using human organ-like materials instead.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also revived a 2019 plan to end animal testing.
Animal welfare groups welcomed the NIH’s move. PETA, which has long criticized the use of beagles for medical testing, said the decision marks a step forward for ethical science.
The group said it would continue efforts to ban all sepsis-related animal experiments and is ready to assist in finding homes for all of the surviving dogs.
Animal rights groups welcomed the development but said more work awaits them
Image credits: Yves Forestier/ Getty Images
The beagles used at the NIH were bred by Envigo, a company that pleaded guilty in 2024 to mistreating thousands of dogs at a Virginia facility.
Envigo was fined more than $35 million after a federal investigation.
In 2022, about 4,000 beagles were rescued from the facility during the investigation. The investigations also revealed more than 70 animal welfare violations over a course of nine months.
“We first exposed [Envigo] in an undercover investigation that eventually led to the closure of the facility and the release of 4,000 beagles to good homes,” PETA Vice President Kathy Guillermo told Fox News.
Guillermo added that she was delighted by the closure of the facility.
“Champagne corks are popping at PETA thanks to NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya’s landmark decision that will spare animals, help humans, and bring science into the modern era,” she said in a statement.
Bhattacharya noted that after the closure, PETA sent him flowers. “Normally, I think NIH directors tend to get physical threats,” he said, “but they sent me flowers.”
However, Guillermo said there was much more work to do in the future.
“Animals are being experimented on, including beagles and other dogs, across the country,” she said.
This closure follows several others in recent years, including the termination of dog testing at the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2022, one of the most controversial animal testing programs.
Image credits: Vuk Valcic/ Getty Images
In 2019, after a White Coat Waste investigation, Trump also closed the U.S. government’s largest cat lab, an action that Bellotti highlights.
In February 2024, the animal rights group Beagle Freedom Project shut down a major animal testing facility in Nowata, Oklahoma, ending decades of experiments on dogs and cats.
According to founder Shannon Keith, over 200 animals were made available for fostering and adoption, marking a new chapter of recovery and care.
The facility was then transformed into a rehabilitation center.
The Trump administration has recently received major support and praise from animal advocacy groups for ending animal testing through programs at the FDA and EPA.
“Under President Trump’s first term, EPA signed a directive to prioritize efforts to reduce animal testing and committed to reducing testing on mammals by 30% by 2025 and to eliminate it completely by 2035,” EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou told The Washington Times.