PETA to Feds: Expand 2013 NIH Budget Cuts to Save Animals & Avoid Fiscal Cliff

Every Year, Billions in Federal Funding Are Wasted on Cruel, Irrelevant Experiments on Animals, Says Group

For Immediate Release:
December 3, 2012

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Washington -- With 7.8 percent in budget cuts on track to kick in for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at the start of 2013 as part of the Budget Control Act of 2011, PETA is urging Congress to take a more drastic measure—cut all funding for wasteful experiments on animals.

In a letter sent today to congressional leaders, PETA explains that nearly half of NIH's current $30 billion annual research budget is awarded to researchers for projects that involve experiments on animals that are cruel, do nothing to advance human health, and contribute to the country's expanding deficit.

"NIH should be funding sophisticated research that will help humans rather than squandering billions of federal funds on cruel and irrelevant experiments, in which animals are mutilated, poisoned, sickened, starved, and electrocuted," says Kathy Guillermo, senior vice president of laboratory investigations at PETA, which has more than 3 million members and supporters. "We can save billions if we stop addicting monkeys to crack cocaine, cutting up rats' genitals in erectile dysfunction studies, and harming animals in any way."

PETA's letter cites several crude, cruel, and pointless experiments funded by NIH grants, including the following:

• Oregon Health & Science University rakes in more than $2 million a year for an ongoing project that includes examining whether the offspring of obese female monkeys are more frightened of Mr. Potato Head dolls than the babies of healthy mothers.
• Columbia University pockets $500,000 a year to addict female monkeys to crack cocaine in order to determine how their drug use is affected by their menstrual cycle.
• University of California–San Francisco rakes in $360,000 a year for erectile dysfunction experiments, in which rats have their penises cut apart.
• University of Wisconsin–Madison receives more than $330,000 a year for a project in which chicken eggs are injected with pure alcohol to see how the exposure affects baby chicks.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.