North Carolina Legislator Cosponsors Bill That Would Ban NIH Funding of Cruel Foreign Animal Experiments

For Immediate Release:
August 23, 2023

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Local U.S. Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.-01) has signed on as a cosponsor of the bipartisan Cease Animal Research Grants Overseas (CARGO) Act (HR 4757), which would bar the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from funding animal tests in foreign laboratories. This development follows PETA’s 18-month investigation into U.S.-funded animal experimenters in Colombia that led to the shutdown of two laboratories.

Between 2011 and 2021, NIH gave approximately $2.2 billion of taxpayer money to 200 foreign organizations to fund 1,357 grants and contracts involving experiments on animals. The money went to 45 countries, including China, Colombia, and Russia. The CARGO Act would terminate such U.S. government giveaways, sparing the lives of countless animals who would have otherwise been victimized in experiments.

NIH has funded foreign laboratories in which experimenters addict dogs to opioids and force them to go through withdrawal, cause strokes in monkeys, remove the eyes of mice and feed the animals amphetamines and alcohol, infect bats with coronaviruses—potentially setting the stage for the next pandemic—force-feed toxic substances to beagles, and more.

“I’m happy to cosponsor the CARGO Act,” says Davis. “We’ve sent enough taxpayer money overseas, and nobody knows how it has been spent—saving money and helping animals at the same time is the way to go.”

“PETA thanks Rep. Davis for his strong leadership,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “It’s not often you get a bill that protects animals, science, and U.S. taxpayers all at once. The CARGO Act does just that.”

The bipartisan bill was introduced by Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.-01) and Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas-22) and has so far been cosponsored by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.-01), Brian Mast (R-Fla.-21), Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.-14), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.-01), and Zach Nunn (R-Iowa-03).

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.