Animal rights groups question Trump administration’s commitment to cut back on primate experiments
This story is part of a collaboration with The Post and Courier de Charleston, in South Carolina.
A federal health agency that promised to reduce its research on animals has attracted the attention of animal rights defenders who want to know why it discreetly approved millions of funds for new funding for dozens of primate experiences since President Trump took office.
“The rhetoric of NIH on the reduction of animal tests does not correspond to reality,” said Justin Goodman, Vice-President Director of White Coat Waste, an organization that described the Trump administration’s commitment to considerably reduce animal tests as a “moment of the watershed” in its struggle to put an end to practice.
His group highlights new expenses to add pressure on the director of the National Institutes of Health, Jay Bhattacharya, one of the many federal officials who promised that the agency would cease to finance research on animals, except the most essential and implement alternative test methods. This decision – very controversial in the world of medical research – comes at a time when animal rights defenders have an unprecedented lever effect in the United States government through their relatives with the president and the secretary of health and social services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The NIH did not respond to requests for comments. In April, Bhattacharya said that the initiative to direct projects to alternative tests “marks a leap forward for science, public confidence and patient care”.
One of the new projects is a renal transplant study which will use approximately 99 monkeys at a cost of around $ 10,000 each, bought on a farm in South Carolina primates. This operation drew global attention last year Research monkeys have escaped in a rural city.
Alpha Genesis monkeys will be used in new kidney research at the Pittsburgh University which involves transplants in monkeys and euthanasation at the conclusion of the study. The project obtained $ 1.4 million in July from the National Institute for Infectious Allergies and Diseases. The study should receive $ 10.1 million in 2030, according to financing documents.
The University said in a statement that its researchers are “grateful for federal support and closely followed all the regulations and standards of the industry, including a continuous evaluation of animal model suppliers which, for the moment, remain necessary for our ability to carry out medical breakthroughs that save human lives.
White coat waste has cataloged around $ 91 million in animal research in recent months and have provided details on the funding of the renal project.
Animal rights defense groups have estimated that the federal government spends up to $ 20 billion per year in research involving dogs, cats, monkeys and other animals. The NIH is the largest fundaler.
Certain controversial animal projects have been cut off from the budget, as the government’s ministry of efficiency under Elon Musk focused on unnecessary spending. A joint investigation by CBS News And the post and mail found nearly $ 28 million in federal subsidies canceled.
Animal rights groups and certain scientists have questioned the scientific value of animal experiences, which are often not conclusive. But patients rely on drugs and medical procedures in development for new treatments.
Primates have been used for decades to test new drugs and treatments before moving on to clinical trials in humans.
Alpha Genesis has regularly provided monkeys for studies that one day hope to improve human tolerance for transplanted organs. But this was criticized last year after the dramatic escape of the monkey and a regulatory lance which led to the death of 22 research monkeys by apparent poisoning in carbon monoxide. The denunciators inside the monkey farm reported deaths to people for the ethical treatment of animals, an animal rights defense group, which alerted a federal animal protection agency. Greg Westergaard, the president of the company, did not respond to a message.
White coat waste also discovered in March that Niaid would continue to finance the operations of Morgan Island, a distant barrier island, popularly known as “Monkey Island” where the Federal Agency maintains up to 4,000 Rhesus monkeys intended for research.
The American representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, called for a closure of the island, which is managed by Alpha Genesis, and recently inserted the language into a household credit bill requiring that the NIH explains its continuous use.
