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An ongoing investigation by the watchdog group White Coat Waste (WCW) has uncovered that on January 12, 2026, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH) quietly awarded one other $826,381 to a controversial canine lab on the College of Pennsylvania (UPenn). The funding was issued as a part of a seamless grant that has remained lively since 1986, additional extending a taxpayer-funded program that has already value the general public greater than $46 million, in line with WCW.Through the years, WCW has revealed that UPenn has continued to function what quantities to an enormous, federally funded pet mill for practically half a century. For the reason that Nineteen Seventies, the college has bred generations of canines to develop painful, degenerative imaginative and prescient problems, subjecting them to invasive experiments bankrolled by the NIH.Public information, in addition to Freedom of Info Act (FOIA) paperwork and movies obtained by WCW present that canines are intentionally bred to develop retinal ailments that progressively rob them of their sight. As soon as their imaginative and prescient begins to fail, the animals are utilized in a collection of disturbing experiments that embody injecting substances instantly into their eyes. The canines are then pressured to navigate impediment programs after extended intervals of darkness, whereas researchers report their confusion and misery.As well as, in the course of the horrific experiments, some canines have their eyes surgically eliminated whereas nonetheless alive. Even canines who survive these procedures are not often spared. Most are killed and dissected when researchers are completed with them, together with breeder canines as soon as they will now not reproduce.What makes this case particularly alarming is the dimensions and period of the struggling. A whole lot of canines have been confined on this laboratory system in recent times. Inner paperwork obtained by WCW present that UPenn has offered these disabled canines, each residing and lifeless, to different laboratories for many years, treating them as stock reasonably than sentient beings. In a single documented incident, a canine from the breeding colony was attacked and killed by different canines, highlighting extra severe animal welfare failures inside the facility.Inner paperwork additionally discovered that UPenn violated federal legislation by failing to reveal NIH funding when publicly discussing these experiments, elevating severe questions on transparency and accountability. WCW filed a federal grievance final 12 months over this violation and is demanding that the venture be defunded.Final 12 months, the NIH introduced its intention to cut back animal testing and appointed Deputy Director Nicole Kleinstreuer as the purpose individual for the initiative. Whereas some animal welfare teams have praised the efforts, WCW has criticized the NIH for not shifting shortly sufficient and for not saying any particular plans for phasing out funding for animal labs.“Now we have no intention of simply phasing out animal research in a single day. We all know that animal research are nonetheless essential and sometimes scientifically justified,” stated Kleinstreuer throughout an interview with a Nationwide Public Radio affiliate in 2025.As WAN reported earlier, final summer season, Kleinstreuer stated the company would part out testing on canines and cats and referred to as it “unconscionable.” Nevertheless, the NIH has not but introduced any particular plans and continues to fund labs, together with the one at UPenn, in addition to testing on different species, together with rabbits, as WAN revealed in an October unique.In gentle of WCW’s investigations into the NIH’s continued funding of the UPenn canine lab and others prefer it, final week, Congressman Greg Steube (R-FL) launched an modification to the NIH’s 2026 funding invoice to ban all “analysis inflicting ache or misery” to canines and cats.“NIH’s ‘animal testing czar’ Nicole Kleinstreuer stated funding for merciless canine labs predated her and that she would part it out. As a substitute, White Coat Waste continues to show how the NIH is holding the canine cruelty going by handing out extra taxpayer funding to my alma mater, UPenn’s pet mill that breeds canines to go blind for lethal experiments,” Anthony Bellotti, WCW’s president and founder and a UPenn graduate, instructed WAN. “Whereas different federal businesses just like the Pentagon and the EPA are chopping animal labs uncovered by WCW and retiring survivors, the NIH is doubling down on pet abuse at UPenn and elsewhere. Taxpayers are uninterested in it. The answer is easy: Cease the cash. Cease the insanity.”TAKE ACTION! Please help the PAAW Act and assist cease the NIH from funding merciless experiments on canines and cats within the U.S. and worldwide by signing WCW’s petition HERE!
An ongoing investigation by the watchdog group White Coat Waste (WCW) has uncovered that on January 12, 2026, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being (NIH) quietly awarded one other $826,381 to a controversial canine lab on the College of Pennsylvania (UPenn). The funding was issued as a part of a seamless grant that has remained lively since 1986, additional extending a taxpayer-funded program that has already value the general public greater than $46 million, in line with WCW.
Through the years, WCW has revealed that UPenn has continued to function what quantities to an enormous, federally funded pet mill for practically half a century. For the reason that Nineteen Seventies, the college has bred generations of canines to develop painful, degenerative imaginative and prescient problems, subjecting them to invasive experiments bankrolled by the NIH.
Public information, in addition to Freedom of Info Act (FOIA) paperwork and movies obtained by WCW present that canines are intentionally bred to develop retinal ailments that progressively rob them of their sight. As soon as their imaginative and prescient begins to fail, the animals are utilized in a collection of disturbing experiments that embody injecting substances instantly into their eyes. The canines are then pressured to navigate impediment programs after extended intervals of darkness, whereas researchers report their confusion and misery.
As well as, in the course of the horrific experiments, some canines have their eyes surgically eliminated whereas nonetheless alive. Even canines who survive these procedures are not often spared. Most are killed and dissected when researchers are completed with them, together with breeder canines as soon as they will now not reproduce.
What makes this case particularly alarming is the dimensions and period of the struggling. A whole lot of canines have been confined on this laboratory system in recent times. Inner paperwork obtained by WCW present that UPenn has offered these disabled canines, each residing and lifeless, to different laboratories for many years, treating them as stock reasonably than sentient beings. In a single documented incident, a canine from the breeding colony was attacked and killed by different canines, highlighting extra severe animal welfare failures inside the facility.
Inner paperwork additionally discovered that UPenn violated federal legislation by failing to reveal NIH funding when publicly discussing these experiments, elevating severe questions on transparency and accountability. WCW filed a federal grievance final 12 months over this violation and is demanding that the venture be defunded.
Final 12 months, the NIH introduced its intention to cut back animal testing and appointed Deputy Director Nicole Kleinstreuer as the purpose individual for the initiative. Whereas some animal welfare teams have praised the efforts, WCW has criticized the NIH for not shifting shortly sufficient and for not saying any particular plans for phasing out funding for animal labs.
“Now we have no intention of simply phasing out animal research in a single day. We all know that animal research are nonetheless essential and sometimes scientifically justified,” stated Kleinstreuer throughout an interview with a Nationwide Public Radio affiliate in 2025.
As WAN reported earlier, final summer season, Kleinstreuer stated the company would part out testing on canines and cats and referred to as it “unconscionable.” Nevertheless, the NIH has not but introduced any particular plans and continues to fund labs, together with the one at UPenn, in addition to testing on different species, together with rabbits, as WAN revealed in an October unique.
In gentle of WCW’s investigations into the NIH’s continued funding of the UPenn canine lab and others prefer it, final week, Congressman Greg Steube (R-FL) launched an modification to the NIH’s 2026 funding invoice to ban all “analysis inflicting ache or misery” to canines and cats.
“NIH’s ‘animal testing czar’ Nicole Kleinstreuer stated funding for merciless canine labs predated her and that she would part it out. As a substitute, White Coat Waste continues to show how the NIH is holding the canine cruelty going by handing out extra taxpayer funding to my alma mater, UPenn’s pet mill that breeds canines to go blind for lethal experiments,” Anthony Bellotti, WCW’s president and founder and a UPenn graduate, instructed WAN. “Whereas different federal businesses just like the Pentagon and the EPA are chopping animal labs uncovered by WCW and retiring survivors, the NIH is doubling down on pet abuse at UPenn and elsewhere. Taxpayers are uninterested in it. The answer is easy: Cease the cash. Cease the insanity.”
TAKE ACTION! Please help the PAAW Act and assist cease the NIH from funding merciless experiments on canines and cats within the U.S. and worldwide by signing WCW’s petition HERE!
