NIH Under Fire for $2 Million ‘Painful’ Experiments on PuppiesThe National Institutes of Health is facing a congressional investigation for conducting a slate of "invasive, painful, and potentially deadly procedures" on puppies as young as six months old—all at taxpayers' expense.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) is requesting the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is helmed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, disclose information about a $1.8 million taxpayer-funded trial that will force feed puppies experimental hay fever drugs, according to a copy of the probe obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon.
The investigation was prompted by a Free Beacon report last month detailing how the NIH allocated $1,836,453 for a contractor to test an experimental hay fever drug on mice, rats, and dogs, including puppies as young as six months old. The most severe symptoms of hay fever, also known as seasonal allergies, are a runny nose and sneezing.
Ernst seeks to discern why the NIH chose to experiment on dogs and puppies when alternative methods, such as guinea pigs as test subjects, were available. The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees medicines like those used to treat allergies, "does not mandate that human drugs be studied in dogs"—making the experiments all the more questionable, according to Ernst.
NIH’s animal tests have become increasingly controversial in Congress and put the U.S. health agency under a microscope, particularly as questions linger about Fauci and NIH’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. NIH’s funding for labs in Russia and China also have generated concerns about the agency’s priorities. Ernst’s investigation comes amid a push by lawmakers to ban Fauci’s NIAID from conducting animal tests with taxpayer funds.
"At least five different NIAID-funded tests on dogs, including puppies as young as six months old, are planned for this drug and will involve invasive, painful, and potentially deadly procedures," Ernst wrote to Fauci on Thursday. "This taxpayer-funded dog testing commissioned by NIAID appears to be unnecessary. … NIAID’s contractor proposed an alternative, non-dog animal model to replace dogs for at least some testing."..........
https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/nih-under-fire-for-2-million-painful-experiments-on-puppies/
