WAN Exclusive: NIH Sends $826K More To Fund Cruel Puppy Experiments At UPenn—Take Action!

An ongoing investigation by the watchdog group White Coat Waste (WCW) has uncovered that on January 12, 2026, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) quietly awarded another $826,381 to a controversial dog lab at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). The funding was issued as part of a continuing grant that has remained active since 1986, further extending a taxpayer-funded program that has already cost the public more than $46 million, according to WCW.

Over the years, WCW has revealed that UPenn has continued to operate what amounts to a massive, federally funded puppy mill for nearly half a century. Since the 1970s, the university has bred generations of dogs to develop painful, degenerative vision disorders, subjecting them to invasive experiments bankrolled by the NIH.

Public records, as well as Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents and videos obtained by WCW show that dogs are deliberately bred to develop retinal diseases that progressively rob them of their sight. Once their vision begins to fail, the animals are used in a series of disturbing experiments that include injecting substances directly into their eyes. The dogs are then forced to navigate obstacle courses after prolonged periods of darkness, while researchers record their confusion and distress.

In addition, during the horrific experiments, some dogs have their eyes surgically removed while still alive. Even dogs who survive these procedures are rarely spared. Most are killed and dissected when researchers are finished with them, including breeder dogs once they can no longer reproduce.

What makes this case especially alarming is the scale and duration of the suffering. Hundreds of dogs have been confined in this laboratory system in recent years. Internal documents obtained by WCW show that UPenn has sold these disabled dogs, both living and dead, to other laboratories for decades, treating them as inventory rather than sentient beings. In one documented incident, a dog from the breeding colony was attacked and killed by other dogs, highlighting more serious animal welfare failures within the facility.

Internal documents also found that UPenn violated federal law by failing to disclose NIH funding when publicly discussing these experiments, raising serious questions about transparency and accountability. WCW filed a federal complaint last year over this violation and is demanding that the project be defunded.

Last year, the NIH announced its intention to reduce animal testing and appointed Deputy Director Nicole Kleinstreuer as the point person for the initiative. While some animal welfare groups have praised the efforts, WCW has criticized the NIH for not moving quickly enough and for not announcing any specific plans for phasing out funding for animal labs.

“We have no intention of just phasing out animal studies overnight. We know that animal studies are still very important and often scientifically justified,” said Kleinstreuer during an interview with a National Public Radio affiliate in 2025.

As WAN reported earlier, last summer, Kleinstreuer said the agency would phase out testing on dogs and cats and called it “unconscionable.” However, the NIH has not yet announced any specific plans and continues to fund labs, including the one at UPenn, as well as testing on other species, including rabbits, as WAN revealed in an October exclusive.

In light of WCW’s investigations into the NIH’s continued funding of the UPenn dog lab and others like it, last week, Congressman Greg Steube (R-FL) introduced an amendment to the NIH’s 2026 funding bill to prohibit all “research causing pain or distress” to dogs and cats.

“NIH’s ‘animal testing czar’ Nicole Kleinstreuer said funding for cruel dog labs predated her and that she would phase it out. Instead, White Coat Waste continues to expose how the NIH is keeping the canine cruelty going by handing out more taxpayer funding to my alma mater, UPenn’s puppy mill that breeds dogs to go blind for deadly experiments,” Anthony Bellotti, WCW’s president and founder and a UPenn graduate, told WAN. “While other federal agencies like the Pentagon and the EPA are cutting animal labs exposed by WCW and retiring survivors, the NIH is doubling down on pet abuse at UPenn and elsewhere. Taxpayers are tired of it. The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness.”

TAKE ACTION! Please support the PAAW Act and help stop the NIH from funding cruel experiments on dogs and cats in the U.S. and worldwide by signing WCW’s petition HERE!