The National Institutes of Health experimented on a number of dog breeds, purposefully raising diseased puppies since 1947, one organization claims.
The White Coat Waste Project released a number of Freedom of Information Act requests it made, which appear to say that the NIH bred some 120-150 dogs each year among the Irish setter, Old English sheepdog, beagle, mountain cur, keagle, basenji, Scottie, kooikerhondje, and Great Pyrenees breeds.
“Since 1947, the NIH has funded a colony that intentionally breeds puppies to suffer from hemophilia and other bleeding disorders at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill,” the group wrote.
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Reps. Dina Titus (D-NV) and Brian Mast (R-FL) wrote a letter to National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Director Gary Gibbons, whose department funded the experiments, on Wednesday. They are asking just how much was spent on the experiments and whether UNC currently houses any diseased dogs from these experiments today.
“As U.S. Representatives, we must exercise our oversight authority to ensure that Americans’ tax dollars are well-spent, and scrutiny of this disturbing program is long overdue,” the letter reads.
“As a pet owner and active member of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, I have prioritized animal safety and fought for their welfare in Congress,” Titus said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The NIH should not be using taxpayer dollars to fund a dog colony that breeds sick puppies for experiments. There are many alternatives to animal testing that are both humane and yield better results so that we can save dogs and puppies AND taxpayer money. We must end these cruel experiments once and for all.”
This comes after another 4,000 beagles that were experimented on by the NIH were released from a Virginia facility. Among those that adopted the experimented dogs were Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
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Neither the NIH’s NHLBI department nor Mast’s office responded to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
