The animal experimentation industry should become our past
What kind of creature tortures its best friend?
The animal experimentation industry seems to be unwinding, but like a medusa, just cutting off a few heads only means more will grow back in the current legal environment.
In May 2024, in an annual Gallup poll, 48% of respondents said medical testing on animals is morally acceptable; while 46% said it was morally unacceptable, a harge shift toward more finding animal testing morally unacceptable.1 In September 5, 2024, Americans (2,205 adults) were given a statement: “The US government should commit to a plan to phase out experiments on animals,” and 80% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement.2
Marc Becoff makes the excellent point in an editorial for the Washington Post, that dogs were bred to be companions, and turning on them with draconian torture cloaked as scientific experimentation, should be antithetical to human knowledge of good and evil.3 If this behavior was exhibited by a child, they would be on the serial killer watchlist. Becoff further points out that 4000 beagles were subjects of experimentation last year. But wait, there is more. The report from USDA/APHIS (the agency that administers the Animal Welfare Act) lists at least one hundred other species of animals used in experimentation legally allowed under the Animal Welfare Act.4
The majority of dogs bred and sold in these breeding facilities for experimentation are Beagles. Beagles are selected because of their docile, human-trusting personality.5 So it is the very traits that make them loving and loyal that presents an opportunity for exploitation by humans.
There are two Beagle breeding facilities in the U.S. that are the primary providers of beagles for experimentation. According to independent interest groups who follow the inspections, these facilities are repeatedly cited for violations of the Animal Welfare Act regulations and guidance.
Rigland Farms was subject to criminal charges in March 2025, and they have used all of their political power to negotiate dropping the criminal charges. It has taken a law professor-turned activist to petition the state for a special prosecutor to prosecute this business for animal cruelty. Surgeries, torture and caging so small the dogs can barely turn around, cutting out their vocal cords so they do not bark.6
In October 2024, the Beagle breeding farm owned by Envigo in Cumberland, Virginia was ordered to pay more than $35 million in penalties, including $22 million in fines. This follows guilty pleas to conspiracy to violate the federal Animal Welfare Act and and conspiracy to violate the federal Clean Water Act.7
DOGE should target this waste that would have the support of Americans.8
Federal policy
In a report on Chimpanzee experimentation, an independent advisory group for the NIH (January 2013) concluded no real benefit had come from the research and called for the use of alternative animal models, in a short-sighted recommendation:
Recommendation SP9: In light of evidence suggesting that research involving chimpanzees has rarely accelerated new discoveries or the advancement of human health for infectious diseases, with a few notable exceptions such as the hepatitis viruses, the NIH should emphasize the development and refinement of other approaches, especially alternative animal models (e.g., genetically altered mice), for research on new, emerging, and reemerging diseases.9
This only encourages and supports other experimental animal industries. Had they used “i.e.” for specifically the genetically altered mice industry, it might have suggested other animal models were not indicated; however the use of “e.g.” opened up the possibilities for any animal model other than chimpanzees to be used in experimentation. They took the path of least resistance, but they may have felt it necessary to suggest endless alternative animal models to make this one significant step in ending chimpanzee experimentation.
With AI models now taking the lead in the development of new drugs and the fact that AI can also perform testing in a virtual environment with a database on known interactions and reactions of drugs with biological and physiological processes,10 why continue this medieval torture with little or no benefit? Animal experimentation appears to be receding, according to the scientific discipline, like neurological experimentation seems to be in the forefront of relying on artificial intelligence in place of animal experimentation.11 Europe is moving in the direction of eliminating animal models in clinical testing.12
In February 27, 2025, Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11) and Rep. Aaron Bean (FL-04) (both Republicans) introduced the Safeguard Pets, Animals, and Research Ethics (SPARE) Act, legislation designed to end federal animal testing, redirect funding toward humane research alternatives, and ensure the adoption or sanctuary placement of animals previously used in experiments, according to their press release.13 The bill has been referred to the House Science, Space, and Technology; Energy and Commerce; Agriculture; and Rules committees for consideration. This would eliminate all animal testing with the exceptions of experimentation to cure diseases of that animal (not for the benefit of another species); and for uses of the military and national security needs.
Section 4. of the bill provides for funding for a transition.
(b) Establishment of a Non-Animal Research Fund (FRMF) A new Federal Research Modernization Fund (FRMF) is created within the National Science Foundation (NSF) to:
1. Provide grants for research institutions transitioning to non-animal research.
2. Develop training programs for researchers adapting to modern methodologies.
3. Support validation and standardization of alternative methods to ensure regulatory acceptance.
4. Facilitate inter-institutional and public-private collaborations for accelerated development of new non-animal technologies.
It is a step in the right direction.
Momentum of the Industry
We were warned about the military-industrial complex by Pres. Eisenhower.14 We now have the Pharma-Industrial Complex that stands to benefit by bolstering the industry with lobbying that will continue the flow of government support for their accessory enterprises. The Pharma-Industrial Complex, or Medical Industrial Complex, was first identified as a new force in society and government in 1980.15 The danger is that the support of the national defense or the national health will eventually evolve to prioritize preservation of the apparatus, itself, rather than prioritizing the original goal. Outdated services or products will continue to be purchased to sustain the Medical-Industrial-Complex that has taken on a life of its own.
Final thoughts
Experimentation with Beagles is egregious enough. It is but the tip of the animal iceberg. Reporting on animals used in experimentation falls into four categories: held only; used with no pain; used with minimized pain; used, pain not minimized. Animals in the “pain not minimized” include bats, rats, mice, cats, cattle, chinchillas, ferrets, goats, turkeys, horses, guinea pigs, hamsters, non-human primates, black bears, pigs, rabbits, red foxes and dogs. These are just the species that are in the worst category of “pain not minimized” and these should stop.
And we should start being a better version of human.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/646025/americans-back-ivf-divide-morality-destroying-embryos.aspx
https://www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/americans-attitudes-toward-animal-experimentation-shift-dramatically-2018-85
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/24/dogs-experiments-cruel-ridglan-prosecutor/
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/fy2023-research-animal-use-summary.pdf
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.170.3959.723.a
https://www.fox6now.com/news/dogs-science-wisconsin-puppy-mill-could-face-criminal-charges
https://investigations.peta.org/dog-beagle-breeding-mill-envigo/
https://www.fox6now.com/news/dogs-science-wisconsin-puppy-mill-could-face-criminal-charges
https://dpcpsi.nih.gov/council/pdf/FNL_Report_WG_Chimpanzees.pdf
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03434-4
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11357221/
https://ellipse.prbb.org/reducing-the-use-of-animals-in-toxicological-research-with-data-science-and-artificial-intelligence/
https://malliotakis.house.gov/media/press-releases/malliotakis-introduces-legislation-end-federal-animal-testing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower%27s_farewell_address
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198010233031703