Taxpayer, remember NIH’s last in-house beagle lab?

Remember the 2,133 dead dogs—stuffed in a refrigerator?

We just obtained records showing Jay Bhattacharya’s NIH was STILL defending that lab as recently as April 15—Tax Day—and planning to kill 24 more dogs.

Legacy groups ignored it.
White Coat Waste shut it down.

We’ve got the receipts.
Read the full investigation below.

Stop the Money. Stop the Madness!

Justin Goodman Senior Vice President White Coat Waste

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NIH Beagle Lab Shut Down By WCW Planned to Kill Dogs Through 2026

• Last month, following a nine-year White Coat Waste (WCW) campaign, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shut down its last in-house beagle laboratory.
• WCW first exposed this lab in 2016—no one else did. Over 40 years, it slaughtered more than 2,100 beagles. It was the federal government’s largest and last confirmed in-house dog lab.
• NIH defended the lab’s merit as recently as April 15, 2025—and planned to kill 24 more dogs through 2026. New NIH records obtained by WCW show the lab was funded through August 2026 and scheduled more painful experiments. WCW’s campaign spared those beagles.
• WCW didn’t just lead this campaign—we built it from scratch. We filed 15 FOIA requests, launched 3 federal lawsuits, mobilized a national grassroots uprising, and ran the only federal lobbying campaign to shut it down. WCW alone brought the case to DOGE—and forced the closure.
• No legacy animal group targeted this NIH lab. None filed lawsuits, submitted FOIAs, or lobbied to shut this beagle lab down—and none has closed a government dog lab in nearly 20 years.

Last month, the Trump Administration shut down the National Institutes of Health’s last in-house beagle lab following a nine-year WCW campaign. 

Our investigation exposed how, for over 40 years, the now-defunct NIH lab pumped pneumonia-causing bacteria into beagles’ lungs, bled them out, and forced them into septic shock. The NIH then killed the beagles—over 2,100 of them—and stuffed their bodies into a refrigerator.

Now, NIH records obtained by WCW through the Freedom of Information Act show that—before we got the Trump Administration to take action in May—the agency planned to continue funding this barbaric dog lab through at least August 2026 and kill 24 more beagles. The NIH also told Congress that the project was still active as of April 15, 2025, just two weeks before the cancelation announcement.

If not for WCW, these dogs would have met the same fate as the last group of beagles the NIH purchased in the spring of 2024.

Invoices and other NIH documents secured by WCW show that this NIH lab purchased 4 beagles in April 2024 and another in June 2024.  Lab records detail how all were abused in the deadly experiments the NIH just shut down.

Records show that the dogs had holes cut into their throats, bacteria that cause pneumonia pumped into their lungs, and were then allowed to suffer for up to 92 hours as they went into septic shock. Any beagles who survived for 92 hours were then killed.

Taxpayers and pet owners shouldn’t be forced to pay for the NIH’s beagle abuse, and now, following a WCW campaign, they won’t have to. 

We’re on a roll, too. Days after the NIH announcement, the Department of Defense canceled a $10 million contract for cruel cat experiments exposed by WCW and the U.S. Navy enacted a historic ban on all dog and cat testing and credited WCW for the move.

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