(Beth Clifton collage)
Elon Musk himself funds vivisection
WASHINGTON D.C.––What will the first Donald Trump administration federal budget mean for laboratory animal use?
A steep reduction, as projected by the White Coat Waste Project?
Much less accountability for animal use, as fewer experiments are done in federally funded laboratories regulated by the Animal Welfare Act, yet more are done in privately owned for-profit labs, also regulated by the Animal Welfare Act but with fewer handles for enforcement?
Mass neglect of animals already in laboratories, as result of Trump administration reduction of reimbursements to laboratories for “indirect costs” associated with federally funded experiments?
(Beth Clifton collage)
Nearly two-thirds of the NIH budget goes toward animal research
Very likely all of the above, and more.
All that is really clear at present is that of the $47 billion per year National Institutes of Health budget, about $30 million––nearly two-thirds––either directly or indirectly funds animal use in biomedical research and testing.
The White Coat Waste Project, founded in 2013 by former Republican strategist Anthony Bellotti, thinks the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress can be persuaded to cut $20 million of the $30 million.
The U.S. House of Representatives late on February 25, 2025 passed a federal budget framework bill along partisan lines, 2017-2015, with all but one Republican in favor and all but one Democrat opposed.
(Beth Clifton collage)
What the budget bill may do for animals
The budget bill would advance the Trump legislative agenda by raising the federal debt ceiling by $4 trillion over two years, adding almost $3 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years, but would at the same time require Congress to find $2 trillion in federal budget savings over those `10 years.
Reductions in laboratory animal use are most likely to come about through Congressionally mandated direct cuts to the National Institutes of Health budget.
The Trump administration and billionaire Elon Musk, directing the Department of Governmental Efficiency, have already tried to limit the maximum reimbursement rate for indirect costs of research done in federally funded laboratories to 15%.
Courts examining the matter, however, have so far held that this can only be done through acts of Congress. This is possible in the budget negotiation process ahead, following passage of the federal budget framework, but has not happened yet.
National Institutes of Allergy & Infectious Diseases director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. (NIAID photo)
What the White Coat Waste Project thinks
The White Coat Waste Project argues that “a simple 4-point-plan for Trump 2.0’s first 100 days can cut billions in wasteful government spending and save millions of animals.”
The four-point plan “proposes defunding dog and cat tests, cutting off China’s animal labs,” reinstating an Environmental Protection Agency plan to phase out animal testing that was announced during the last days of the 2017-2021 Trump administration but abandoned during the Joe Biden administration, “and abolishing the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases,” with an annual budget of $6.6 billion.
The National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases was headed from 1984 to 2022 by Ronald Reagan administration appointee Anthony Fauci, whom Trump vehemently blamed for the lackadaisical U.S. response to COVID-19 despite Trump’s own repeated denials of serious of the pandemic until nine months after it hit the U.S., killing 1.2 million Americans.
Beagle, rat, Anthony Fauci, & Justin Goodman of the White Coat Waste Project.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Beagles in China
In all, claims the White Coast Waste Project, “At least 26 animal laboratories in China have active approvals to receive U.S. taxpayer dollars from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and other government agencies.
“Records show,” the White Coast Waste Project says, “that the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense have recently extended a contract for [Chinese laboratories to do] abusive and wasteful drug tests on 300 beagles weekly until the end of May 2025.
“The records also expose another $108,000 wasted for deadly drug tests on an estimated 100,000 mice and rats.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Monkey brain experiments
Further, the White Coat Waste Project alleges, “investigation has uncovered that U.S. taxpayer-funded experimenters collaborated with sanctioned labs in Iran and China for cruel testing on primates procured from South Carolina’s notorious Alpha Genesis breeding facility. In the experiments, monkeys had holes drilled into their skulls, electrodes implanted into their brains, and were locked in restraint chairs and forced to stare at computer screens.”
These tests, the White Coat Waste Project charges, “were funded with tax dollars via the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Department of Veterans Affairs.
The White Coat Waste Project says its “priorities are supported by key Trump allies including Roger Stone, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, Lara Trump, Marty Makary, Jay Bhattacharya, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.”
Elon Musk. (Beth Clifton collage)
Musk funds the same, similar, or worse
Conspicuously absent from that list, however, is Donald Trump’s top federal budget hatchet man Elon Musk.
Musk, in fact, has for more than a decade through his company Neuralink funded animal experiments which from available information are substantially identical to those the White Coat Waste Project decries.
Summarizes Wikipedia, “Neuralink tests its devices [meant to link human brains to computers] by surgically implanting them in the brains of live monkeys, pigs, and other animals,” attracting critical notice from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
The Neuralink experiments on monkeys were initially done from 2017 to 2020 in partnership with the University of California, Davis campus, an institution which receives federal funding.
(Beth Clifton collage)
15 monkeys dead
Subsequently the research and seven monkey experimental subjects were transferred to Neuralink.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine believes from available documentation that the work done by Neuralink at U.C. Davis involved at least 23 monkeys, 15 of whom either died or were euthanized as a result of the experiments, and alleged that U.C. Davis withheld photographic and video evidence of alleged mistreatment of the monkeys.
Again summarizes Wikipedia, “In December 2022, it was reported that Neuralink was under federal investigation,” for alleged Animal Welfare Act violations.”
Reuters reporter Rachel Levy “cited claims by several Neuralink employees that testing was being rushed due to Musk’s demands for fast results, which was leading to needless suffering and deaths among the animals.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Move fast & break things”
“A September 2023 exposé by Wired provided additional details on the primate deaths based on public records and confidential interviews with a former Neuralink employee and a researcher at the California National Primate Research Center. Those records showed complications with the installation of electrodes, including partial paralysis, bloody diarrhea, and brain swelling.”
Neuralink was cleared in 2023, however, of the alleged Animal Welfare Act violations.
The Food & Drug Administration nonetheless refused to allow Neuralink to perform human clinical trials. Neuralink therefore resumed testing on pigs to demonstrate the safety of the proposed procedures.
Phyllis Fong. (Wikipedia photo)
Killed investigation by firing inspector general
After a Wired follow-up published in October 2023, four members of the U.S. House of Representatives, all Democrats, in November 2023 asked the Securities & Exchange Commission to investigate whether Neuralink misled investors by concealing information about animal deaths.
The Securities & Exchange Commission investigation was assigned to U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector general Phyllis Fong, a 22-year USDA employee hired under President George W. Bush.
The New York Times in December 2024 disclosed the progress of the investigation, including that Musk “had posted on X a letter in which his lawyer informed him that the Securities and Exchange Commission had reopened a separate investigation also related to the alleged abuses.”
The Donald Trump administration fired Fong on January 24, 2025, among 17 other federal departmental inspector generals.
(Beth Clifton photo)
Livestock Behavior Research Unit
Some federally funded animal research is at least nominally done for the benefit of animals themselves.
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Livestock Behavior Research Unit, the primary federal lab dedicated to farm animal welfare research,” reported Grey Moran for Sentient Media on February 25, 2025, “now has just one scientist remaining on staff.
Scientists Jessica Pempek and Kaitlin Wurtz, “who were both probationary employees,” meaning that they had less than two years’ tenure in their positions, “were both fired on February 13, 2025,: Moran reported, “leaving just Heng-wei Cheng,” close to retirement, “as the sole scientist remaining.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Studies livestock pain & stress
Explained Moran, “The Livestock Behavior Research Unit, embedded in Purdue University in Indiana, is part of the in-house research branch of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service,” established in 1992.
“The unit has led federal research into the study of animal pain, nutrition, cognition and stress in response to the conditions on farms,” Moran added, including “research into the gruesome mutilations and injuries routinely suffered by farm animals,” such as castration, debeaking, and heat stress.
Merritt & Beth Clifton with Henry the rooster.
By implication, the Trump administration seems to believe that what is not known will not hurt agribusiness.
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