Animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) demanded the resignation of the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci, after reports surfaced that the NIAID spent millions of taxpayer dollars on research that killed dozens of beagle puppies.
On Thursday, PETA wrote on Twitter “Our position is clear. ALL those in leadership at NIH, including Fauci, should resign.” The tweet came as a response to Keith Malinak, reporter at Blaze Media, when he asked the organization if they would demand Fauci’s resignation as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) did in a recent hearing.
Our position is clear. ALL those in leadership at NIH, including Fauci, should resign. https://t.co/dtfeFm71h4
— PETA (@peta) November 5, 2021
As Matt covered last month, documents from the NIH obtained by a taxpayer watchdog organization White Coat Waste Project (WCW) revealed that the NIAID spent $1.68 million on research that killed beagle puppies. The research, which took place from October 2018 to February 2019, involved force-feeding or injecting 44 beagles, aged 6 to 8 months, with an experimental drug before killing them. The research, as Matt noted, was deemed “unnecessary” by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
After reports of the findings were released, several lawmakers, including Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), wrote a letter to Fauci demanding answers on the experiments.
Yesterday, I sent a letter to Dr. Fauci regarding cruel, taxpayer-funded experiments on puppies; debarking before drugging and killing them. Thankful to my 23 democrat and republican colleagues who signed on. This is disgusting. What say you @NIH pic.twitter.com/c54SXipD9Q
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) October 23, 2021
“We write with grave concerns about reports of costly, cruel, and unnecessary taxpayer-funded experiments on dogs commissioned by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,” the letter stated. “This is a reprehensible misuse of taxpayer funds.”
In a statement to Fox News, PETA’s senior vice president of the laboratory investigations department Kathy Guillermo said that “Anthony Fauci and all the NIH directors have defended a cruel, archaic system for far too long.”
“They’ve known for at least a decade that torturing dogs, monkeys and other animals is delaying treatment and cures for humans, but they continually defend the status quo – at the cost of millions of animal lives and billions of taxpayer dollars,” Guillermo continued. “PETA urges all Americans to ask President Biden to appoint NIH leaders who understand that organs-on-a-chip, super computers, 3-D tissue models and other high-tech research methods must replace animals in the laboratory now.”