Tag: animal cruelty

PETA Appears to Run Cover for Brutal Monkey Torturer After Obama-Appointed Judge Reverses Trump’s Harvard Funding Freeze

PETA has spent three years telling its donors that the “lights are out” on Harvard neurobiologist Margaret Livingstone’s cruel infant-monkey lab, but federal records say otherwise.

A new notice of funding, thanks at least in part to an Obama-appointed judge reversing President Donald Trump’s Harvard funding freeze, came just sixteen months after PETA toasted “the end of Margaret Livingstone’s career as tormenter of baby monkeys.”

NIH RePORTER still lists Livingstone as the contact principal investigator on a National Eye Institute award at Harvard Medical School with an award notice dated September 11, 2026, fiscal year 2026 funding of $850,148; a budget period running September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2027; and a project end date of August 31, 2028.

Livingstone was also awarded a new grant on April 17, 2025, with fiscal year 2025 funding of $576,474; a project start date of May 1, 2025; a subsequent award notice dated June 1, 2026, for fiscal year 2026 funding of $576,201; and a project end date of April 30, 2029.

PETA’s May 27, 2025, release claimed a “massive victory” and said funding for the baby-monkey experiments “has been terminated.”

A PETA news post updated May 28, 2025, said “the lights have finally gone out on Margaret Livingstone’s dark experiments on baby monkeys” and that the work was on Harvard’s list of canceled federal grants.

PETA2 told younger readers the same week, “the lights are finally out” and “NIH just pulled the plug.

NIH itself posted on May 29, 2025, that it had “terminated funding at Harvard University for studies that included sewing the eyes of young monkeys shut.”

Then, a Boston judge gave the money back.

On September 3, 2025, U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs, an Obama appointee, granted Harvard summary judgment, vacated the administration’s freeze orders and termination letters, and barred the government from giving those letters any force.

The NIH termination letter dated May 6, 2025, was among the letters she set aside. The judgment vacated “all freezes and terminations of funding to Harvard made pursuant to the Freeze Orders and Termination Letters on or after April 14, 2025.”

The Daily Caller reported this week that taxpayer money is still moving through multiple Livingstone grants, including the new $850,000 award posted this month and a multi-year grant running through 2029.

PETA’s own description of the “maternal deprivation” horrors in Livingstone’s lab includes infant macaques taken from their mothers, some raised with only a cloth surrogate, some fitted with vision-distorting goggles or strobe-like conditions for months, some with eyelids sewn shut, some implanted with electrode arrays, and many later killed and dissected.

Former NIH Director Francis Collins privately called related maternal-deprivation work “third-rate,” according to the Daily Caller.

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Rep. Nancy Mace Moves to Ban Lab Puppy Mills After White Coat Waste Tracks 1,500 Dogs Sent into Taxpayer-Funded Experiments

The animal testing watchdog organization White Coat Waste has published a new report showing that Oak Hill Genetics, an Ewing, Illinois, breeder and the nation’s second-largest lab-dog supplier, shipped 1,518 hound-mix dogs to 44 laboratories between January 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026.

Some of the animals were only about three months old.

Recipients included universities and contract labs that hold National Institutes of Health money.

Earlier this month, White Coat Waste’s spending review found more than $225 million in NIH awards for dog and cat experiments since mid-February 2025, including more than $98 million in new dog-testing money at pharmaceutical companies and $11.7 million in new cat work.

The lab list WCW obtained is specific.

The University of Utah took dogs for heart work that WCW says includes tied-off arteries, pacemakers, and electric shock before the animals are killed; Utah has drawn nearly $12 million for those studies and received 50 Oak Hill dogs in the 18-month window. Washington University in St. Louis, with more than $1.2 million for laryngeal-nerve work, took 32. Vanderbilt has taken more than $109 million over decades for obesity, diabetes, and liver studies. The University of Washington implants tumor cells in prostates. The University of Chicago induces severe strokes. The University of Cincinnati kills dogs to harvest larynxes.

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White Coat Waste Sues NIH to Force Release of ‘Wuhan West’ Virus-Smuggling Records

White Coat Waste has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit demanding that the Department of Health and Human Services turn over records on animal experiments and the virus smuggling scandal at NIH’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana, the NIAID campus the group has nicknamed “Wuhan West.”

The taxpayer and animal welfare watchdog filed the complaint on September 15 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The lawsuit covers seven FOIA requests sent in 2025 and 2026, some of which have sat unanswered for more than 18 months.

The requests seek IACUC protocols for work at Rocky Mountain Labs on Ebola, other filoviruses, Nipah, Hendra, Lassa, Sudan virus, SARS-CoV-2 variants, Heartland virus, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, avian influenza, and tick colonies, including photos and video of animals used in those studies.

Later requests target records on the undeclared importation of biological materials from Africa by NIH personnel, specifically virologist Vincent Munster, including correspondence with Customs and Border Protection, the FBI, CDC, USDA, DOJ, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the HHS inspector general.

The agencies acknowledged the requests, but sent nothing over, according to White Coat Waste.

White Coat Waste has long worked to expose this lab and scientist.

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FDA Using Taxpayer Dollars to Buy Young Baboons for Infection Experiments in Maryland

The Food and Drug Administration is buying up young baboons with taxpayer dollars so researchers can infect and kill them for research in Maryland.

White Coat Waste Project has released a new report detailing how the agency issued a $368,626 purchase order on August 31 to buy 20 baboons for pertussis experiments at its Maryland primate laboratory.

An active protocol allows the lab to use up to 48 animals.

Some of the baboons will receive experimental vaccines or antibodies. Others will get no protection at all. Then researchers will pump the bacteria that cause whooping cough into their windpipes and noses.

The primates will be subjected to violent coughing, vomiting, breathing problems, fever, weight loss, nasal discharge, and weeks of illness.

Staff will draw blood and swab noses and throats again and again.

Some of the animals will be killed and dissected so researchers can examine their lungs, windpipes, and lymph nodes.

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Kash Patel Defends New FBI Hiring Policy On Bestiality

The process of reforming the Federal Bureau of Investigation (”FBI”) has proven to be a daunting task for its director, Kash Patel, since he took over the United States’ preeminent law enforcement agency. Marred by concerns over his personal conduct, an exodus of thousands of personnel, an ensuing staffing shortfall, and a collapse in public perception largely due to the agency’s handing of the Epstein Files, Patel continues to face inescapable questions over his ability to successfully lead the bureau. The latest instance of this crisis of confidence came following the revelation that the Patel-led FBI has chosen to lift hiring restrictions on applicants for special agent positions who have previously engaged in bestiality.

Changes to the FBI’s hiring policy were discretely initiated on February 28th, 2025, just eight days after Patel was confirmed as its director by the Senate, when the bureau chose to lower the standards it uses when conducting background checks on applicants. Under the new hiring standards, prospective employees would no longer automatically be ruled ineligible for employment if they were found to have engaged in bestiality so long as the act took place before they turned 18 years old. An internal memo circulated on June 16th, 2026, when the new standards went into effect, explained that the change was made in an effort the FBI deemed necessary to implement a hiring policy designed to consider the context of why acts like bestiality were committed by prospective hires instead of rigidly treating the incidences as automatic disqualifiers for employment. Previously, the FBI listed “engagement in prostitution or bestiality” as automatic disqualifiers as part of its hiring requirements for special agents.

Although the change to the FBI’s hiring requirements policy had largely gone unnoticed, it became the subject of intense public scrutiny during testimony from Patel that took place during an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Patel faced pointed questions from bipartisan members of the committee on the decision to relax the FBI’s hiring requirements in such a confounding manner.

Louisiana Republican senator John Kennedy, member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, grilled Patel on the decision. “I’m trying to understand why you did this,” Kennedy said to Patel. “We’re having a tough time attracting agents, good quality agents we all can trust….Why would you even get into bestiality?” he asked.

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NIH Continues Pouring More Than $225 Million Into New Dog and Cat Experiments Despite Trump Admin Efforts to Shift Toward Modern Alternatives

A bombshell White Coat Waste investigation released this week documents more than $225 million in new National Institutes of Health funding for dog and cat experiments awarded, supplemented, renewed, or extended since February 2025.

The total includes new grants and contracts, additional discretionary money for existing awards, and project extensions that keep taxpayer-funded laboratories running.

By June, White Coat Waste had identified more than $150 million, and by early September the figure had jumped to more than $225 million, a roughly 50 percent increase.

Nearly 44 percent of the identified spending, more than $98 million, went to pharmaceutical companies conducting dog tests. Another $11.7 million supported invasive cat experiments.

That $225 million-plus exceeds the NIH’s highly publicized $150 million investment in non-animal methods, or new approach methodologies, by more than $75 million.

The Trump administration has repeatedly moved federal research away from outdated animal models toward modern, human-relevant tools such as organoids, tissue chips, computational models, and real-world data.

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Agriculture Canada admits researchers breached scientific integrity rules

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has acknowledged cases of potential scientific misconduct involving improper publication practices and unauthorized animal research, but the department is refusing to identify the employees or studies involved.

The admission was uncovered by Blacklock’s Reporter in the department’s annual report, Addressing Misconduct and Wrongdoing at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

“Concerns were raised regarding non-compliance with the department’s policy on science and technology publications related to the publication of scientific articles and book chapters,” the report said.

Officials also received complaints involving the unauthorized use of animals for research. The department said the allegations were reviewed under its science-integrity policy but provided no details about the findings, consequences or affected research.

The policy applies to federal employees and affiliated researchers involved in conducting, managing, reviewing or communicating scientific work.

Possible breaches include fabricating or misrepresenting data, improper authorship, failing to acknowledge scientific contributions, interfering with the release of findings and violating ethical or legal research requirements.

Despite the admission, no federal agency has attempted to document the full extent of plagiarism across the federal government.

A 2015 case involving an open-book Transport Canada employment examination found that six of 114 applicants had plagiarized material. The Public Service Commission concluded the applicants knowingly presented someone else’s work as their own to improve their chances of being hired.

Records released in 2017 revealed the commission had received 67 allegations involving plagiarism and résumé fraud over two years. At least seven cases were referred to the RCMP.

Agriculture Canada did not disclose whether the latest cases resulted in disciplinary action or whether any compromised publications were withdrawn or corrected.

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Georgia Cop Placed on Leave After Family’s Baby Donkey ‘HeeHaw’ is Shot and Killed During Search, Owner Says Officers Entered Pasture Without Permission

A family in Georgia is outraged after a Georgia police officer shot and killed their baby donkey named ‘HeeHaw’.

According to the donkey’s owner Hannah Israel, Georgia police entered her family’s pasture and killed HeeHaw after they perceived him as a threat.

In a post on Facebook Israel wrote, “At 12:45am cops entered my pasture searching for a missing person WITHOUT permission or warning and shot and killed my bottle raised BABY donkey.”

She added, “HeeHaw was raised in the house and did petting zoos he never knew a stranger. And was shot and killed in his OWN pasture for doing what donkeys do. Alerting to a stranger. There is no way this is legal! I will be taking legal action.”

Police entered on Israel’s pasture as they were searching for a missing child.

The Cedartown Police Department in Georgia has since placed an officer on leave and is investigating the shooting.

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The CFIA slaughtered their ostriches — now it won’t pay the farmers a cent

Nine months after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) slaughtered hundreds of ostriches at a British Columbia farm, the owners have been dealt another blow: the federal agency says it won’t pay them a cent in compensation.

On this week’s episode of The Gunn Show, I’m joined by Rebel News B.C. Bureau Chief Drea Humphrey, who has followed the battle at Universal Ostrich Farms from the beginning and was on the ground as the fight to save the flock unfolded.

The CFIA destroyed more than 300 ostriches at the Edgewood farm following a lengthy legal battle over a suspected avian flu outbreak, despite the farmers maintaining the surviving birds were healthy and had recovered.

Under federal rules, compensation could have reached as much as $3,000 per ostrich, meaning the farm potentially stood to receive up to $942,000. Instead, the CFIA informed the family in a July 20 letter that “compensation will not be awarded,” citing alleged violations of the Health of Animals Act and incidents of alleged non-compliance.

Farm co-owner Karen Esperson believes the decision is punishment for fighting the government’s destruction order.

“They’re saying we’re actually going to destroy your livelihood,” Esperson told Rebel News.

The family, already carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt from its legal battle, plans to appeal.

Drea also joins Sheila to discuss Rebel News’ upcoming full-length documentary, Culling the Cure: The Aftermath of Canada’s Ostrich Slaughter, which chronicles the farmers’ fight, the controversial cull and what happened after the cameras left.

The documentary premieres in Kelowna on September 18 before additional screenings across Canada.

Tonight, Drea takes us behind the scenes of the story, what the farmers are facing now, and what Canadians will see in Culling the Cure.

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PETA Savaged Kristi Noem. For Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, It Found Excuses.

PETA knows how to find a villain.

When Kristi Noem, then South Dakota governor and later a member of the Trump administration, revealed in 2024 that she had shot her 14-month-old dog Cricket, PETA went straight for her throat.

Most Americans love their dogs, and we suspect that they’ll consider Gov. Noem a psychotic loony for letting this rambunctious puppy loose on chickens and then punishing her by deciding to personally blow her brains out rather than attempting to train her or find a more responsible guardian who could provide her with a proper home. Noem obviously fails to understand the vital political concepts of education, cooperation, compromise, and compassion.

The group said Americans would consider Noem a “psychotic loony.” It later sold a Halloween costume depicting Noem as a “Puppy Killer.“

Nobody had to search for PETA’s position. Subtlety had left the building.

Then came Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democrat nominee for the Senate.

El-Sayed oversaw Detroit Animal Control for about 16 months while serving as Detroit health director. He was reported to have had more than 4,000 dogs and cats euthanized during his tenure, although the number during his actual period of oversight appears to have been closer to 1,900.

Euthanasia also declined during his tenure, and he brought in new leadership and expanded transfers to rescue groups.

Facts are facts, even when they complicate a good political punch.

But PETA’s response remains fascinating.

When questioned about El-Sayed, PETA blamed the larger problem on breeders, retailers, people who buy instead of adopt, and owners who don’t spay or neuter their pets.

From our sister site, Townhall:

A report from the Daily Mail found that El-Sayed was the subject of whistleblower complaints after he ascended to the post of health director in Detroit. Under his watch nearly 4,700 cats and dogs were euthanized, and an untold number died from malnutrition and lack of medical care, all while being subject to unsanitary conditions.

The problem grew so bad that one former employee called the Department of Animal Control under El-Sayed’s reign a “dog slaughterhouse.”

“I was almost embarrassed with myself to be part of a team that played a role of the death of so many dogs in their cages,” Detroit Animal Control whistleblower Brittany Roberts told the Daily Mail regarding the neglect. “Every morning, we’d just walk around and see who was alive before we could even feed.”

When asked for comment regarding El-Sayed’s shocking actions, PETA told Townhall that the blame shouldn’t be laid at the candidate’s feet.

The group did say allegations involving animals being denied veterinary treatment or allowed to suffer should receive an independent investigation.

Then came the remarkable part: PETA told people angry about shelter euthanasia to place the blame “firmly” on practically everyone surrounding the system.

Where was that philosophical restraint when Noem was involved?

PETA could’ve discussed difficult choices, circumstances, responsibility, or context in her case. Instead, it called her crazy and turned her into a Halloween monster. With El-Sayed, suddenly there were systems to consider, social causes to ponder, and blame to spread around.

PETA hasn’t endorsed Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed. Its response, nevertheless, handed a Democrat Senate nominee something politically valuable: cover.

The timing makes the gentleness even more noticeable because voters are learning plenty about Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed. He’s repeatedly dragged Second Lady Usha Vance into attacks on Vice President JD Vance, including remarks about her pregnancy, marriage, sex life, and their “brown kids.” 

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