NIH shutters notorious lab accused of slaughtering beagles for four decades

A government research lab that had been used to conduct “cruel” and deadly drug experiments on beagles for at least four decades has been shut down, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya revealed.The NIH’s controversial in-house Clinical Center on its Bethesda, Md., campus had been accused of pushing pneumonia-causing bacteria into 2,000 beagles’ lungs, among other brutal experiments.The closure of the notorious facility dovetails with a broader push by the Trump administration to phase out animal testing.“We put forward a policy to replace animals and research with other technological advancements, AI and other tools that actually translate better to human health,” Bhattacharya told “Fox & Friends Weekend” Saturday.“We got rid of all of the beagle experiments on NIH campus.”Beagle experimentation at the NIH lab had been a deeply controversial practice, drawing outrage from multiple members of Congress and scrutiny from the White Coat Waste Project watchdog group, which fights against animal experimentation.WCW had uncovered federal experiments in which scientists cut into beagles to finagle tubing into their lungs so that they could pump deadly pneumonia-causing bacteria in there and conduct experiments related to septic shock as well as organ failure.After about four days, any surviving dog would be put down and then stashed inside a refrigerator.

At least 2,133 died during this process, and the government was estimated to have forked over between $1,000 and $1,500 per beagle from Envigo’s puppy mill in Cumberland, Va.“As the watchdog that first uncovered and battled Dr.Fauci’s beagle tests (the biggest animal testing scandal in history), we’re proud that White Coat Waste has closed the NIH’s last in-house beagle laboratory following a hard-fought nine-year-long campaign,” WCW founder and President Anthony Bellotti, a former Republican strategist, said in a statement.

“We applaud the President for cutt...