An official with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) told “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Tuesday that the National Institutes of Health is under investigation for reportedly funding “hideous” experiments on beagles.
At issue is a $1.2 million contract spanning the past decade to purchase beagle dogs to conduct cruel experiments, PETA senior vice president of cruelty investigations Daphna Nachminovitch told the program.
The PETA official revealed that the most recent allegations focus on Envigo, a Virginia-based firm that stands accused of providing around 5,000 adult beagles and puppies to the NIH and other labs that were subsequently tortured. During a recent visit by a PETA investigator, more than 360 beagles were found dead.
Nachminovitch also said that the Department of Agriculture has cited the NIH for “hideous” conditions inside warehouses where the dogs are kept.
https://twitter.com/AnOpiner/status/1476015634806984704
“They have been cited … for direct and critical violations,” she said. “For failure to provide basic necessities of life to these nursing mother dogs and their puppies, keeping animals in temperatures as high as 92 degrees without air conditioning, plunging needles into the heads of puppies to drain hematomas … and so much more.”
That investigation is continuing, she noted, adding that the dogs in those facilities are raised specifically for “cruel experiments that are useless” but are nevertheless paid for by U.S. taxpayers.
Nachminovitch said that beagles are the breed of choice for such experiments because they are easy to torture.
“Beagles are small and docile,” she told guest host Will Cain. “They’re such gentle, loyal dogs, and unfortunately they are so submissive that they’re easy to torture without posing a public safety risk to their abusers.”
In addition to the NIH, one of its charges, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has also been accused of funding experiments in Tunisia where PETA says that beagles were drugged before their heads were located inside cages stuffed with infected sandflies.
The animal rights group called for Fauci to resign in a Nov. 5 tweet.
The PETA investigator said that NIH spends around $19.6 billion annually on animal experimentation.
Regarding the Tunisia experiments, a bipartisan group of lawmakers sent Fauci a letter in late October following the initial reports demanding an explanation.
“Yesterday, I sent a letter to Dr. Fauci regarding cruel, taxpayer-funded experiments on puppies; debarking before drugging and killing them. Thankful to my 23 democrat and republican colleagues who signed on. This is disgusting,” Rep. Nancy Mace(R-N.C.), who led the effort, noted on Twitter.
“We write with grave concerns about reports of costly, cruel, and unnecessary taxpayer-funded experiments on dogs commissioned by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,” the letter said.
“The dogs were all between six and eight months old. The commissioned tests involved injecting and force-feeding the puppies an experimental drug for several weeks, before killing and dissecting them,” the letter continued.
Jon has over 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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