Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) released a statement last year, sounding off on former Covid czar Dr. Anthony Fauci regarding alleged animal abuse that has occurred within the United States government. Republican lawmakers have recently focused on what has been described as inhumane lab testing on beagles. However, Malliotakis claims this is just the “tip of the iceberg.”
The watchdog group the White Coat Waste Project had previously exposed taxpayer funding that was being allocated toward animal testing. The work from the group has led to heightened scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, vowing to prevent the use of tax dollars toward inhumane lab experiments being conducted on beloved pets.
A statement released by Malliotakis in June read, “Dr. Fauci’s wasteful spending on cruel animal testing was front and center recently as Congress grilled him on the COVID-era catastrophes he caused, from risky gain-of-function research to BeagleGate.” The representative added, “At the hearing, Fauci defended paying for puppies to be de-barked and poisoned and admitted for the first time that he personally signed off on the taxpayer-funded animal cruelty that we’ve been fighting together since 2021. We’ve even successfully united Republicans and Democrats to criticize and cut Fauci’s funding for beagle abuse.”
Malliotakis pointed out that, while Fauci no longer works in the federal government, the issue of animal testing still persists. “Earlier this year, the White Coat Waste Project uncovered a plan to revive previously halted kitten experiments, which had been discontinued five years ago under the Trump administration. Dr. Fauci, while still at the NIH, had allocated over $400,000 to a university lab in California to restart these experiments. However, due to the efforts of WCW, this plan was canceled, demonstrating the impact of continued oversight and advocacy,” the statement continued.
According to the New York Republican, the testing is not limited to lab animals, where in some instances pet dogs that have been surrendered are involved in experiments. “It is not just laboratory animals that are affected. There are instances in which pet dogs, surrendered by their owners, are used in these experiments. These animals are subjected to painful testing and, in some cases, are euthanized after the research is completed,” the statement continued.
To combat this, the Preventing Animal Abuse and Waste (PAAW) Act has been introduced, which seeks to prevent tax dollars from being allocated toward such experimentation. “To address these issues, we have united lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to support the Preventing Animal Abuse and Waste (PAAW) Act. This legislation aims to cut taxpayer funding for the NIH’s painful experiments on cats and dogs and calls for more ethical and humane research practices,” the representative said.
Malliotakis concluded, “Protecting animals from cruel testing is not a partisan issue and has broad support in Congress and across the country. We believe it is imperative to reform the current system to protect animals and ensure that taxpayer money is used responsibly and ethically. By advocating for these changes, we hope to bring an end to unnecessary and inhumane animal testing practices.”
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Featured image credit: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anthony_Fauci_2020.jpg