Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Demand Answers From Fauci Over ‘Cruel’ Puppy Experiments

A grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to a Tunisian lab has ignited controversy. Now, legislators on both sides of the aisle want answers.

A report from the White Coat Waste Project alleges that Dr. Anthony Fauci's division at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) partially funded animal testing on 44 beagle puppies.

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Members of Congress sent a letter over the weekend asking Dr. Fauci to explain himself in response to the allegations from the taxpayer watchdog group.

Their report states that scientists in North Africa infected 44 puppies with a parasitic disease to test an experimental drug. Some had their vocal cords removed so staff wouldn't have to hear them bark.

As The Hill reports:

According to the White Coat Waste Project, the Food and Drug Administration does not require drugs to be tested on dogs, so the group is asking why the need for such testing.

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Leading the effort is Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), writing a letter to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) saying the cordectomies are “cruel” and a “reprehensible misuse of taxpayer funds.” 

“Our investigators show that Fauci's NIH division shipped part of a $375,800 grant to a lab in Tunisia to drug beagles and lock their heads in mesh cages filled with hungry sand flies so that the insects could eat them alive,” White Coat Waste told Changing America. “They also locked beagles alone in cages in the desert overnight for nine consecutive nights to use them as bait to attract infectious sand flies.”

Mace's letter was signed by Reps. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa), Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Scott Franklin (R-Fla.), Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.), Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Fred Keller (R-Pa.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), Brian Mast (R-Fla.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Bill Posey (R-Fla.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), Maria E. Salazar (R-Fla.), Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.).