End NIH-Funded Animal Abuse Abroad

Between 2011 and 2021, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) gave roughly $2.2 billion in taxpayer money to foreign organizations for research involving animal testing.

Yet the NIH conducts no inspections and provides no oversight of these overseas facilities and has no legal obligation to do so. That means neither the NIH nor the American public has any idea how the animal victims of these experiments are treated—or whether even the most basic welfare standards are in place.

Relying solely on self-reporting from grant recipients has opened the door to fraud, misconduct, and disturbing abuse of animals in foreign labs which has been exposed thanks to investigations by accountability organizations like the White Coat Waste Project, which has worked to uncover the extent of taxpayer-funded animal cruelty abroad.

In China, monkeys were strapped down, injected with heroin, and forced into drug addiction for so-called research. In Tunisia, rabbits were subjected to unimaginable agony as sandflies were allowed to eat them alive. In Brazil and China, restrained male monkeys were sexually assaulted in invasive experiments that serve no legitimate scientific purpose. And in Russia, dogs and cats were mutilated and electroshocked in barbaric neurology tests. All of it unnecessary, all of it funded by the NIH — and therefore, by the American taxpayer. 

Thankfully, a bill that would cut off funding for these gruesome experiments, the CARGO Act of 2025 (Cease Animal Research Grants Overseas Act), has been introduced in both the House and Senate. This bipartisan bill would prohibit the NIH from funding any program that uses live animals in research conducted outside the United States.

The legislation was introduced in the House by Representatives Dina Titus (D-NV-01) and Troy Nehls (R-TX-22), and in the Senate by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rick Scott (R-FL).

When highlighting the bill’s importance, Congresswoman Dina Titus explained:
“Too many NIH programs overseas either fail to hold up under scrutiny or are exempt from oversight altogether, resulting in the abuse of animals through experiments funded by taxpayer dollars. The CARGO Act is a critical step in ending animal suffering and redirecting resources to more humane and reliable research methods here in the United States.”

Senator Rick Scott echoed these sentiments when introducing the bill in the Senate noting:
“It is deeply concerning that Americans’ taxpayer dollars have been used to fund harmful and abusive animal experiments overseas that lack the same oversight and accountability as labs here in the United States. The CARGO Act will put an end to this misuse of funds and ensure taxpayer-funded research isn’t contributing to the abuse of animals in labs abroad.”

If you live in the United States, you can help protect animals from suffering in foreign labs by reaching out to your members of Congress today and asking them to cosponsor the CARGO Act. If your representative is already a cosponsor, the form will allow you to send a message thanking them for supporting this compassionate legislation.

If you don’t live in the United States you can help raise awareness for this important bill by sharing this petition on social media.