I had no idea. I’m sure the same applies to almost everybody else. America was sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to Russia to conduct cruel animal experiments on cats and dogs.
It has not been explained to me as yet why the American government sent US$770,000 of taxpayers’ money to Russia to conduct cruel experiments on cats at the Kremlin-run Pavlov Institute of Physiology. The scandal is made worse by Russia’s appalling war crime behavior in Ukraine. How can anyone do business with Russia?
These cruel animal experiments were funded by America’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) which according to White Coat Waste Project (WCW) was recklessly shipping millions of tax dollars to several Russian animal labs with virtually no oversight.
These cruel experiments on cats and dogs were first funded by NIH in 2017. It was planned do run experiments through to May 2023.
According to WCW, “dozens of healthy cats had their brains damaged, electrodes implanted into their spines, and were forced to walk on treadmills before being killed.” And to think that this was all being funded by American taxpayers.
And it is thanks to WCW for pushing for a change. WCW researchers also discovered experiments at the same laboratory which weren’t funded by American tax dollars but involved injecting chemicals into dogs’ brains and including implanting electrodes in monkeys’ brains. Horrendously, it’s reported that they removed the brains from kittens of as young as four days old.
The investigation which is so shocked people led to a lot of media exposure and the involvement of lawmakers.
Members of Congress led by Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) wrote to Pres Biden referring to WCW’s campaign and work on this and demanded the immediate cancellation of grants to Russian labs.
Pres Biden didn’t respond. WCW then worked closely with bipartisan lawmakers who requested that the 2023 federal spending bill prohibited tax dollars from being sent to Russian animal labs.
In June 2022 the White House announced that the government would “wind down […] research collaborations in the fields of science and technology with Russian government-affiliated research institutions.”
And then the House voted unanimously “in favour of a WCW-backed amendment to defund all animal labs in Russia, China and other countries deemed foreign adversaries”.
Eventually the Biden administration followed through on its commitment and confirmed that all Russian animal labs had been defunded.
WCW state that 75% of Republicans and Democrats agree that taxpayer money should not be paid to Putin’s cruel animal labs where cats and other animals are tortured.
This is a major victory for WCW and a major advancement in animal welfare. I can only think of one reason why America was funding animal experiments in Russia and that is because they wanted someone else to do their dirty work knowing that it would be rejected in America.
It also seems that some money went to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. This is the laboratory implicated in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sen Joni Ernst (R-IA) wants to recover the money paid as you can see in the image below.
