Taxpayer-funded animal experiments tied to Chinese 'wet markets' and Wuhan laboratory

by CARLIN BECKER | April 10, 2020 01:40 PM

Taxpayers have unwittingly funded the same "wet markets" and laboratory in China that lawmakers are turning their attention to during the coronavirus pandemic.

As recently as 2015, the Department of Agriculture purchased live animals, such as cats and dogs, with U.S. tax dollars at Chinese meat markets similar to the one in Wuhan, which has been tied to early cases of COVID-19. The department also paid for the animals to be slaughtered and transported back to the United States for experiments in which their remains were fed to other animals.

One study involved feeding the body parts of euthanized cats from the markets to kittens in a project that taxpayer watchdog White Coat Waste Project called "kitten cannibalism." The experiments were intended to study a parasite that causes the foodborne illness toxoplasmosis and cost $22 million over several years before getting shut down in 2019.

As the world continues to combat the coronavirus, Congress has turned attention to such markets in China, which have reportedly reopened, despite the USDA having bought animals from them. A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday called on the world’s leading health groups to push for a global ban on these "wet markets" after reports that the coronavirus may have come "from a zoonotic source" in Wuhan.

"In order to help prevent the next pandemic, we write today to urge your organizations to take aggressive action toward a global shut down of live wildlife markets and a ban on the international trade of live wildlife that is not intended for conservation purposes,” the group urged.

Some members of Congress have also speculated the novel coronavirus originated from an accidental lab escape from China's biosafety level 4 superlaboratory that the U.S. government also funded.

The National Institutes of Health has authorized two animal testing labs at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which researches human infectious diseases just a few miles from the local market, to receive tax dollars for animal experiments. Some of this research included coronavirus studies involving bats that some legislators have theorized could have been a catalyst for the outbreak.

The agency has authorized another 22 taxpayer-funded animal experiments at other laboratories in China, and reports have indicated that experimental animals from some of these facilities have been sold after use to "wet markets" for consumption.

"Uncle Sam went on a spending spree with Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars at China's despicable 'wet markets,' where scientists believe COVID-19 originated, and is still forcing U.S. taxpayers to subsidize animal abuse at China’s controversial animal testing labs that may even sell abused and infected animals to wet markets," Anthony Bellotti, founder and president of the White Coat Waste Project, explained to the Washington Examiner.

“When I learned our government was spending taxpayers' money at China's disgusting wet markets to buy and slaughter cats and dogs for cruel experiments, I helped lead the successful effort to stop it last year," Rep. Matt Gaetz, who was instrumental in ending the USDA's kitten experiments, reacted to the news in a statement.

"I'm disgusted now to learn that, for years, the U.S. government has been funding dangerous and cruel animal experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which may have contributed to the global spread of coronavirus, and research at other labs in China that have virtually no oversight from U.S. authorities," the Florida Republican continued. "It's unnecessary and unacceptable for American taxpayers to fund these institutions, and it has to end now."

"The wet markets in China are disgusting, and to think that, just recently, taxpayer dollars were spent to purchase animals from these markets for cruel experiments is insane," Rep. Brian Mast, another Florida Republican who worked to stop the USDA's tests, added. "That’s why we fought so hard to end this practice, and we will continue fighting to make sure taxpayer dollars never go to these disgusting markets again."

While the USDA told the Washington Examiner that the department "did not purchase any cat specimens from Wuhan" specifically, the NIH did not respond to a request for comment.