Rand Paul Leads GOP Senators in Asking Fauci About His Role in Puppy Experiments

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) led a delegation of Senate Republicans on Friday in asking Dr. Anthony Fauci to explain years-old “puppy experimentation” purportedly funded by his agency.

Citing reports about “inhumane experiments on beagle puppies” conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Fauci’s agency, to the tune of $1.68 million, Paul and five of his colleagues asked Fauci to disclose whether he was aware of the experiments when they took place.

“One article reported that in addition to ‘force-feeding or injecting 44 beagle puppies aged 6-8 months old with an experimental drug before killing and dissecting them,’ the research also’ involved cutting the dogs’ vocal cords so they could not bark,'” the group noted. “As you are surely aware the leading U.S. veterinary organizations … oppose non-therapeutic devocalization of dogs.”

Signatories on the letter included Sens. Susan Collins (ME), Tom Cotton (AR), Roger Marshall (KY), Marco Rubio (FL), and Mike Braun (ND). The presence on the list of several heavy-hitters among Senate Republicans illustrated the issue’s rise in prominence since it began circulating out of an Oct. 5 blog post by the White Coat Waste Project.

The alleged experimentation motivated shock in subsequent weeks, along with some invective aimed at Fauci from across the political spectrum. That included a Thursday column from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that accused Fauci of authorizing experimenters who “fed puppies’ heads to infected flies,” though that accusation conflated experiments that took place in Africa ― sans Fauci’s involvement.

Senators who signed Friday’s missive closed with questions for Fauci that included asking whether the FDA required his agency to perform toxicity tests on dogs, or to “devocalize” them, along with whether Fauci’s agency explored alternatives before authorizing the projects.

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