Watchdog Group Spotlights DoD’s Funding of Close to $1 Million on ‘Barbaric’ Beagle Experiments

One of the Images of sandfly experiments on dogs from NIH documents that taxpayer watchdog group White Coat Waste Project obtained in 2023. Courtesy of White Coat Waste Project

This article has been updated with a response from the Department of Defense.

A Department of Defense (DoD) contract reaching $1 million to experiment on beagles has been uncovered by an organization that spotlights wasteful government spending at the cost of animal welfare.

According to Justin Goodman, senior vice president of the White Coat Waste Project (WCW), the DoD banned wound training and weapons and trauma experiments on dogs, cats, and primates in the 1980s.

The DoD has a loophole that allows the department to spend $949,108 on toxicity experiments on beagles that involve the canines’ inhaling or ingesting experimental drugs, based on information that WCW obtained from the federal spending database.

According to WCW, the loophole lies in the DoD’s instructions for using animals in research and training in which it prohibits the purchase and use of dogs, cats, primates, and marine mammals “for the purpose of training in surgical or other medical treatment of wounds” inflicted by weapons.

“The loophole is that the policy prohibits the abuse of dogs and cats for weapons experiments and wound training but still allows them to be subjected to other kinds of experiments like this drug safety test on beagles that we uncovered,” Mr. Goodman told The Epoch Times.

The experiments, which WCW calls “unnecessary and cruel,” began last year and are scheduled to run until July.

WCW pointed to the DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency information webpage on “microphysiological systems,” in which it acknowledges that “animal models have limited relevance to humans and poorly predict effects in humans.”

According to Mr. Goodman, experiments on animals are unethical and outdated.

“The Defense Department’s wasteful drug tests on beagles must be defunded before any more dogs suffer and die and before any more taxpayer dollars are squandered,” he said.

Spinogenix

In 2023, the Pentagon awarded the second part of the grant to Spinogenix Inc., which describes itself in a statement as a “clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company” that develops drugs for neurodegenerative conditions.

The grant is for the funding of safety studies required by the Food and Drug Administration for an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) drug.

“There remains an unmet need for new innovative therapeutics for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), which is almost invariably fatal within 3-5 years of diagnosis,” Spinogenix said. “The therapies that are currently approved for ALS provide for only a modest slowing of disease progression. Ultimately, effective treatment of ALS may involve a combination of approaches to both slow disease progression and regenerate neural circuitry that are lost to the disease.”

Stella Sarraf, CEO of Spinogenix, said in a 2023 statement that the new drug, which would be in pill form taken once daily, would induce an increase in synapses between neurons made less receptive by ALS, resulting in loss of motor control and memory.

‘Easy to Abuse’

WCW has continued to acquire documents describing several government-funded experiments on animals, some of them not appearing to have a specific purpose, while filing litigation to challenge the experiments.

WCW has uncovered government experiments on beagles with a price tag of $375,000.

These experiments involved having sandflies eat the dogs alive, as well as experiments that involved force-feeding 44 beagle puppies an experimental drug before killing and dissecting them.

In some of these procedures, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases staff performed a “cordectomy,” which involves cutting a dog’s vocal cords so that it can’t bark, howl, or cry during an experiment.

“The reason that the Department of Health and Human Services gives on its website for using beagles is that they are small and docile, meaning they are easy to abuse,” Mr. Goodman said in a previous interview for The Epoch Times.

In November 2021, WCW reported government spending of up to $13.5 million to perform experiments that involved injecting rhesus monkeys with debilitating diseases that led to hemorrhaging, pain, brain damage, loss of motor control, and organ failure.

Another experiment that cost taxpayers $2.3 million was conducted by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), itself a part of NIH.

These experiments involved strapping beagle puppies into a jacket contraption that maintained an infusion of cocaine into their veins while they were dosed with another drug.

NIDA told The Epoch Times in 2022 that the experiment was to test the safety of a new drug that would be used for the treatment of “cocaine disorder.”

In 2020, WCW reported that the NIH spent about $140 million on animal experiments in foreign countries, with a total of 353 labs in 57 countries worldwide that are authorized to receive U.S. taxpayer funds, including countries classified as foreign adversaries, such as China and Russia.

Images of dog experiments obtained by White Coat Waste Project. (Courtesy of White Coat Waste Project).

‘Stop the Madness’

According to Mr. Goodman, WCW is leading the effort of a supermajority of Republicans, Democrats, and independents who oppose what he called the DoD’s “barbaric beagle experiments” and want to see an end to the government’s “dog testing business.”

“The solution is simple: Stop the money,” he said. “Stop the madness.”

In April, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, reintroduced the Preventing Animal Abuse and Waste Act legislation prohibiting government spending on experiments that cause distress to dogs or cats.

“I’m leading bipartisan efforts to stop government testing on dogs because taxpayers’ hard-earned money should not be wasted on outdated, unnecessary and inhumane experiments on man’s best friend, especially when more effective, economical and humane alternatives are readily available,” she told WCW.

In response to The Epoch Times’ request for comment, a DoD spokesperson said that it’s “committed to maintaining the highest standards of ethical conduct and professionalism in all its research programs, including those involving animal testing.”

“Any research, development, or testing conducted or supported by the DoD adheres strictly to all applicable federal and DoD policies and guidance,” the spokesperson said. “These policies provide national standards for the acquisition, transportation, housing, control, maintenance, handling, treatment, care, welfare, use, and final disposition of animals.”

Animal research funded by the DoD is governed by strict regulations, which include the Animal Welfare Act and Animal Welfare Regulations, the spokesperson continued.

“The Department is dedicated to ensuring the humane treatment of animal subjects in all research activities,” the spokesperson said. “We also prioritize the use of alternative methods to animal testing whenever possible, provided these methods produce scientifically or educationally valid results.”

The spokesperson added that its commitment to ethical standards and the welfare of the animals “remains a cornerstone of our research endeavors.”

Representatives of Spinogenix didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment by press time.