Make America great at embracing animal-free research! That’s the message PETA is rallying for at President Donald J. Trump’s inauguration events in Washington, D.C., where our giant “mouse” mascot—a surrogate victim of laboratory abuse—is blasting the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for its annual waste of billions of tax dollars on cruel, ineffective experiments on animals.
From the “Make America Great Again” Victory Rally to the president’s inauguration to the 2025 presidential inaugural ball, PETA’s “mouse” is confronting attendees and passersby with an alarming announcement: “NIH Wasted $23 Billion on Animal Tests Last Year!” Wearing a patriotic hat and a button that says, “Cut the NIH Budget,” the anti–animal experimentation mascot is calling for the incoming administration to redirect taxpayers’ money to modern, human-relevant research that leaves animals in peace.
PETA’s mobile billboard and flyposters are also popping up around Washington, D.C., urging Trump to slash runaway spending on pointless animal tests.
NIH’s Misuse of Tax Dollars Is a Disaster
Propped up by taxpayer funds, NIH squanders nearly half of its annual budget—more than $23 billion annually—on painful, deadly experiments on animals that do almost nothing to advance human health. Experimenters funded by the agency have addicted dogs to opioids, injected acid into the brains of baby rats to induce seizures, infected monkeys with tuberculosis, and tormented animals in other horrific ways.
And for what? About 90% of basic research, most of which involves animals, fails to lead to effective treatments for humans. In addition, 95% of new drugs that test safe and effective in animals later fail in humans—sometimes causing severe side effects and even death. The majority—69%—of research misconduct cases involve invasive experiments on animals, resulting in thousands of animals being harmed and killed for misleading data. Not only is NIH wasting valuable time, money, and resources, it’s also hindering the advancement of non-animal methods that could actually help humans.
Tormenting Animals Is Not ‘Science’
In U.S. laboratories alone, experimenters kill more than 110 million animals—including mice, rats, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, birds, and others—each year. Experimenters may force animals to inhale toxic fumes, drill holes into their skulls, burn their skin off, or crush their spinal cords before ultimately killing them.
When laboratories aren’t subjecting animals to painful tests, they keep them locked inside barren, lonely cages. Many animals spend their days incessantly spinning in circles, rocking back and forth, pulling out their own fur, and biting themselves out of severe distress.
What YOU Can Do
Experiments on animals have continued for decades with little oversight and no human-relevant results—and NIH is bolstering this broken system. On the other hand, animal-free research methods—like those outlined in PETA’s Research Modernization Deal—can spare countless animals and yield treatments and cures for humans.
If you’re a U.S. resident, please send a polite e-mail to your members of Congress urging them to demand that NIH stop throwing away taxpayer money on pointless experiments on animals and instead focus on advancing research:
No matter where you live, please urge the director of NIH’s BRAIN Initiative to pull the plug on Harvard Medical School experimenter Margaret Livingstone’s twisted vision-manipulation experiments on baby monkeys:
Note: PETA supports animal rights and opposes all forms of animal exploitation and educates the public on those issues. PETA does not directly or indirectly participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office or any political party.
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