A new investigation has revealed that over $27 million in U.S. taxpayer funds have gone to animal testing laboratories in Canada, with projects that include shocking experiments on dogs, cats, kittens, and rabbits.

This funding comes from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—despite public outcry and agency promises to phase out animal testing on pets.

According to reporting by White Coat Waste and WAN:

• At the Université de Sherbrooke, researchers cut the spinal cords of cats, implant electrodes in their muscles, force them to walk on treadmills, then kill them.
• At Dalhousie University, kittens have their eyelids sewn shut, are raised in darkness, injected with neurotoxins, and killed.
• Beagles in for-hire testing labs had tubes forced down their throats, were drugged until they experienced tremors, then killed.
• At the University of Victoria, rabbits are deliberately infected with syphilis bacteria and used in long-term experiments.

Some of these labs do not report to any U.S. regulatory body, and many operate outside the reach of U.S. animal welfare laws—even as they receive our tax dollars.

This is unacceptable.

We, the undersigned, call on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to:

• Immediately cancel NIH eligibility for all Canadian animal testing labs;
• Halt funding for all NIH-backed experiments involving dogs, cats, and rabbits overseas;
• Release a public plan to end all U.S. funding of foreign animal testing programs by 2027.

If the NIH is serious about ending unnecessary animal testing, this is the place to start.

Taxpayers shouldn’t fund pet torture—especially across borders. Stop the money. Stop the cruelty.