Beagle Torture Must End. Now.

Most drugs tested on animals fail in humans, calling into question the entire scheme of taxpayer-funded animal testing

Beagle puppies used in taxpayer-funded drug research were silenced in one of the most disturbing ways imaginable. As puppies, their vocal cords were slit in a cruel procedure known as a cordectomy, leaving them unable to bark, whimper, or cry, while experimental drugs were force fed to them. Then the beagles were euthanized and dissected.

This is not isolated abuse. It exposes the dark side of America’s animal research pipeline, annually involving tens of thousands of dogs. The ongoing research also involves a taxpayer-supported network of federal grants, breeding facilities, university labs and research organizations that continues to breed animals for experiments, confine them in cages, subject them to painful procedures, and kill them when the work is done.

The beagles are central because their gentle, trusting temperament makes the cruelty impossible to ignore. Federally funded experiments have involved dogs bred to be blind, nerve-damage procedures, paralysis research, radioactive exposure, forced drug testing, insect infestation studies, and euthanasia rather than adoption.

Lauree Simmons, executive director of Big Dog Ranch Rescue (BDRR) and recent guest on MAHA Action’s weekly Media Hub (which, on May 20, focused on animal cruelty), has seen what happens to beagles bred for research. Her organization brought national attention to the industry through the Ridglan Farms rescue, where 1,500 beagles were released from a Wisconsin research facility through an agreement involving BDRR and the Center for a Humane Economy. Simmons told the Associated Press the rescue was “a very big win,” and said she was “ecstatic” to see the dogs being adopted. The AP reported that Ridglan Farms had roughly 2,000 beagles, and that BDRR was working to place about 1,000 dogs into homes.

But rescue is not reform. While BDRR has saved over 90,000 dogs since 2008, Simmons emphasizes that rescue alone cannot end a system that continues breeding dogs and other animals for research. These animals deserve to be treated far better than being part of disposable research inventory.

The scientific case against animal testing is becoming even harder to dismiss. In April 2026, the FDA acknowledged the weakness of the decades-old animal-testing model, stating that animals are “not a great model” for how drugs perform in humans. The agency even admitted that 90-95% of the drugs tested on animals fail FDA approval, because of safety or efficacy problems in humans, and that they are reducing animal testing.

Jordana Cohen of Big Dog Ranch Rescue has pointed to the same failure across major disease categories, including Alzheimer’s and cancer, where animal models fail to translate into human treatments. Patients wait longer for therapies, researchers lose years, and taxpayers continue funding a system that has produced little to no success for too much suffering.

Dr. Robert Malone, a physician-scientist known for his work on medical freedom and informed consent, and author of PsyWar: Enforcing the New World Order, has described the beagle experiments as part of a widespread failure of institutional accountability.

Speaking at the same May 20 MAHA Action Media Hub as Simmons and Cohen, Malone pointed to an NIAID-funded case from Fauci’s tenure, exposed by advocacy group White Coat Waste Project, involving 44 beagle puppies. The puppies had their vocal cords slit in a cordectomy procedure before being force-fed experimental drugs, killed, and dissected, using nearly $1.7 million in taxpayer funds.

Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina has made this issue a matter of legislation and taxpayer accountability. In July 2025, she reintroduced the Preventing Animal Abuse and Waste Act, which prohibits NIH from conducting or funding research that causes significant pain or distress to dogs and cats.

“This isn’t just animal cruelty, it’s bureaucratic cruelty, paid for by the American taxpayer,” Mace said. She has also pushed Violet’s Law, which would require federal labs to allow healthy research animals to be adopted or retired instead of killed when research ends.

The money trail matters, too. White Coat Waste Project estimates that the federal government spends over $20 billion a year on animal experiments across agencies including NIH, FDA, DoD, VA, USDA, CDC, and EPA, a figure highlighted during a February 2025 House Oversight hearing on taxpayer-funded animal cruelty. USDA/APHIS data released in July 2025 show that U.S. research facilities reported 42,880 dogs used or held for research in 2024, including more than 12,500 used in experiments involving pain or distress and 410 whose pain was not minimized.

Painful animal experimentation is a business model for universities, contractors, breeding facilities, and research institutions that depend on federal grants. Once budgets, careers, and prestige attach to a research model, even a failing model can survive for decades.

Under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Health and Human Services, federal agencies are finally beginning to move. Kennedy has come out strongly against animal testing, and recently said he wants dog testing to become a thing of the past.

Change can’t happen overnight, but The FDA Modernization Act 2.0 removed the old requirement that drug developers use animal testing and opened the door to alternatives such as cell-based assays, computer models, and organ chips. FDA has also announced plans to reduce, refine, or replace animal-testing requirements for certain drugs using New Approach Methodologies, including AI-based toxicity models, human cell systems, organoids, and computational tools.

NIH has announced ORIVA, the Office of Research Innovation, Validation, and Application, to help develop and scale non-animal testing methods, while naming Dr. Nicole Kleinstreuer, a longtime leader in the field, to a senior role overseeing program coordination, planning, and strategic initiatives.

This is the reform MAHA was built to demand: better science, less cruelty, less waste, and real accountability. Beagles, like humans, deserve fresh air, sunlight, safety, and the love of a family, not a lifetime in a research lab.