PETA Offers Plan to Pentagon: Cut Millions in Welfare Payments to Foreign Monkey and Rat Labs

For Immediate Release:
May 6, 2026

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Washington –

In a letter sent today, PETA offers a strategy to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth that would stop the ongoing waste of more than $21 million that is currently being poured into scam schemes overseas, amid criticism about the cost of the war with Iran: Cut Pentagon funding for painful experiments on primates and other animals in foreign countries that bring no benefit to the U.S.

PETA’s research reveals that the War Department has funneled more than $21 million into foreign animal laboratories in just the last seven years. This is just one slice of a staggering $57 million in taxpayer dollars that the Pentagon is wasting on outdated, painful, and scientifically dubious animal experiments.

In just one example, experimenters at Australia’s James Cook University received nearly $600,000 to shave rats and plunge them into near-boiling water, inflicting third-degree burns on at least 30 percent of their bodies. Experimenters then cut out half of their livers to induce uncontrolled internal bleeding and kept them alive, conscious, and suffering for 24 hours before killing them.

The Pentagon funds numerous overseas experiments on animals, such as these rats, used in various cruel experiments in laboratories around the world. Images obtained through public records requests by PETA U.S. and PETA Australia.

“Monkeys, pigs, rats, sheep, and other animals are burned, irradiated, mutilated, poisoned, and killed in cruel and wasteful Pentagon-backed experiments—lining foreign pockets—that offer no benefit to human health,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “PETA urges Secretary Hegseth to end this boondoggle, launch a full audit of gruesome programs overseas and at home, and transition the Pentagon toward state-of-the-art, animal‑free research.”

Other foreign laboratories currently funded by the Pentagon include:

The University of British Columbia in Canada, which is receiving more than $9.4 million to inflict paralyzing spinal cord injuries in mini‑pigs and rats, repeat invasive surgeries and device implantation, subject mice to limb and skin grafts, and use pigs in blood‑type experiments.
Canada’s Atuka Research Institute, which is receiving more than $1.5 million to induce uncontrollable muscle contractions in monkeys.
McGill University in Canada, which is receiving more than $5.8 million to blind rats.
Sunnybrook Research Institute in Canada, which is receiving more than $824,000 to damage rats’ auditory nerves.
Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, which is receiving nearly $300,000 to mount invasive “computational systems” on the heads of goldfish.
Chile’s University of Antofagasta, which is receiving more than $173,000 to subject rats to invasive spaceflight simulations, including hanging them by their tails for weeks and depriving them of oxygen.
Recce Pharmaceuticals in Australia, which is receiving $2 million to inflict severe burns and dangerous bacterial infections on rats and pigs.
The University of Melbourne in Australia, which is receiving nearly $700,000 to implant magnetic stents into the brains of sheep.

PETA also urges Pentagon officials to audit the War Department to identify waste, fraud, and abuse in U.S.-based animal experimentation and ban the domestic and ongoing use of animals in Navy-funded decompression sickness and oxygen toxicity tests, and prohibit the use of dogs, cats, primates, marine animals, and other animals in Army weapon-wounding tests.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.