Here’s a roundup of the latest, biggest news stories related to animal research—all the recent media coverage you need to know right now to be the most effective activist for animals in labs.
2025 Shook the System. In 2026, Let’s Bring it Down.
Rise for Animals, 1/13/2026
Last year was a turning point in the fight to end animal experimentation: Lawmakers said the quiet part out loud. Federal agencies started backing away. Public opinion shifted. Whistleblowers came forward. Survivors found sanctuary.
This year, Rise for Animals isn’t slowing down. 📰 Full Story →
Meet 264 Victims of Animal Agriculture and Animal Research
Rise for Animals, 1/14/2025
Did you know factory-farmed chickens are also research subjects?
This investigation reveals how 264 “broiler” birds were exploited by industry, universities, and the USDA. 📰 Full Story →
American voters support animal welfare — and MAGA is seizing on it
Kenny Torrella, Vox, 1/8/2026
“Historically, both Republican and Democratic administrations have largely ignored animal welfare as a policy matter, failed to enforce what few legal protections animals do have, and benefited animal-exploiting industries through favorable executive orders, subsidy programs, and deregulatory measures. That was certainly the case during Trump’s first term and, for the most part, it’s true for his second . . . (The one major exception is the Trump administration’s long-running campaign to phase out animal experimentation.)”
“[Delcianna Winders, the director of Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Animal Law and Policy Institute] is optimistic about HHS’s efforts to phase out animal experiments, an area where ‘we’ve already seen significant progress.’”
“Animal welfare may be perceived as a progressive issue, and indeed, Democrats tend to support animal welfare at higher rates than Republicans — but not by much. And over the last decade, there’s been an increasing appetite among conservatives to challenge industries that exploit animals and claim the Republican Party as the party for animal welfare.” 📰 Full Story →
What A Week Of Freedom Can Do For A Lab Mouse
Sabrina Imbler, Defector, 1/7/2026
“Each time Matthew Zipple, a behavioral ecologist at Cornell University, releases a mouse that was born and raised in a laboratory into the green expanse of a field, he is amazed . . . The mouse’s new world is an enclosed field approximately 10,000 times the size of their shoebox-sized cage . . . Within a few days, the mouse has explored the entire enclosure. ‘They are doing things that they couldn’t do in the lab and that their ancestors haven’t done for dozens of generations—things like bounding over grass and digging in the dirt,’ Zipple said. In the field, the mice build nests, dig burrows, and find their own food. They choose which mice to socialize with, and when. For the first time in their lives, they experience weather.”
“After rewilding a batch of laboratory mice, the researchers discovered the mice’s learned fear and anxiety responses were utterly transformed by their time in the field . . . the researchers believe the change in the behavior of the mice comes down to agency, meaning the creatures’ ability to change their environmental experiences as a result of their behavior. A mouse has extremely limited agency in a cage. It can move around, but that’s basically it. ‘It cannot change its social environment. It cannot dig. It can’t reliably avoid or seek light or different temperatures or hunt for food. It doesn’t run inside its nest when it starts to rain,’ Zipple said. ‘All of those are things that our rewilded animals do in their daily lives.’” 📰 Full Story →
White Coat Waste Partners with Republican Lawmakers to Push Trump Admin to Defend NSF’s Cruel Animal Experiments
Cassandra MacDonald, Gateway Pundit, 1/08/2026
“The White Coat Waste Project (WCW) is working with Republican lawmakers to push the Trump administration to end funding for the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) cruel animal experimentation. The NSF’s staggering $9 billion budget has been used to fund increasingly bizarre and painful experiments exposed by WCW, including poisoning puppies with experimental drugs, making cats obese, creating transgender lab mice, forcing primates to play Plinko, and drilling into monkeys’ skulls with mad scientists in Iran.”
“ . . . Rep. Nancy Mace . . . introduced an amendment to prohibit the use of NSF funds for any research causing pain or distress to domestic cats and dogs . . . Sen. Joni Ernst has also long been working to expose and end the NSF insanity, which has even included putting shrimp on a treadmill….,” and “[i]n a recent Fox Business interview, Sen. Paul went as far as to say the NSF should be entirely shut down because of its reckless spending habits.” 📰 Full Story →
Not Guilty Verdicts Rock Second UK Beagle Rescue Trial, Re-energizing the Open Rescue Movement
Jane Velez-Mitchell, UnchainedTV, 1/12/2026
“A UK jury has delivered a major win for animal rights: four defendants in the second ‘Beagle Rescue’ trial tied to Animal Rising have been found not guilty—a landmark result in a series of cases stemming from the December 2022 open rescue of beagle puppies from MBR Acres, a Cambridgeshire facility that supplies dogs for animal testing. The verdicts arrive after the first trial ended in convictions, and as additional trials remain ahead—with supporters saying the first case will be appealed, and new groups of defendants still scheduled to face court.”
“As the remaining trials approach and the first case moves toward appeal, the second trial’s acquittals have done something unmistakable: they have re-opened the possibility that, in a courtroom, a jury can look at a beagle puppy and refuse to see ‘property’—even when the law demands it. If the next juries follow suit, the UK’s first open rescue trials may become more than a legal battle over burglary. They may become a turning point in how a society weighs compassion against institutions built on secrecy.” 📰 Full Story →
Charles River inks $510M deal to bring primate supply in-house
Nick Paul Taylor, Fierce Biotech, 1/14/2026
“Charles River Laboratories has struck a $510 million deal to buy a nonhuman primate (NHP) provider, furthering efforts to strengthen its supply chain after a turbulent period. The supply of NHPs, which are central to drug development, has been in flux since China put an export ban on the animals in 2020. With its main source of NHPs closed off, Charles River and its rivals pivoted to providers of the animals in countries including Cambodia. That strategy hit a major snag when the U.S. government began investigating Cambodian suppliers, leading Charles River to pause shipments.”
“Against that backdrop, Charles River increased its stake in Noveprim, an NHP supplier in Mauritius, in 2023 and disclosed the acquisition of Cambodia’s K.F. this week. James Foster, Charles River’s outgoing CEO, discussed the strategy at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Tuesday . . . ‘The demand continues to increase, so we want to have control of supply.’”
“Charles River sources about 30% of its animals from the Cambodian farm. Following the deals with K.F. and Noveprim, the company expects to own and internally source most of its future annual NHP supply requirements for its discovery and safety assessment (DSA) business. Because Charles River will pay less for its internally sourced animals, Foster expects the K.F. deal to benefit the company’s operating margin.” 📰 Full Story →
Huge win for rodents as Oreo scraps animal testing funding
Helen Greaves, Vegan Food & Living, 1/14/2026
“For fans of the iconic Oreo, a brand long celebrated for its ‘accidentally vegan‘ status, a recent policy shift away from animal testing has provided a significant reason to celebrate. Following a high-profile campaign involving tens of thousands of activists and international pressure, the snack manufacturer Mondelēz International, which also owns Cadbury and Ritz, has officially committed to ending its funding for all experiments on animals.”
“This landmark decision marks the closure of a long-standing loophole that previously allowed the conglomerate to bankroll ‘nutritional science’ tests that were neither legally required nor essential for product safety.” 📰 Full Story →
Ridglan Farms under pressure; activists plan large-scale dog rescue
Bryan Polcyn, FOX6, 1/14/2026
“Animal rights activists say they are preparing what they call an ‘open rescue’ of dogs still housed at Ridglan Farms, a beagle breeding facility west of Madison that is set to surrender its breeding license later this year . . . In 2017, a trio of activists entered Ridglan Farms and removed three beagles. Nearly a decade later, the activist who led that operation says he is planning to return all the dogs still inside. ‘These dogs have to be safe,’ said Wayne Hsiung, an animal rights activist and attorney. ‘It is not just our moral duty, it is our legal right to give aid to animals in distress.’”
“In a public statement Wednesday, Ridglan called on state and federal authorities to intervene and prevent what it described as ‘mass animal theft.’ . . . It is not clear how many dogs remain at Ridglan Farms. A company spokesperson did not respond to FOX6’s request for an interview on Wednesday.” 📰 Full Story →
Labour ban on peaceful protest at animal-testing centres slated as ‘draconian assault on democracy’
Jane Dalton, Independent, 1/14/2026
“Campaigners are accusing the government of a draconian crackdown by taking away the fundamental right to protest peacefully after it made non-violent demonstrations at animal-testing facilities a criminal offence.”
“In a change to the law that was not part of a Bill before Parliament, Labour has amended the Public Order Act to categorise animal-testing facilities, including universities and laboratories, as ‘key infrastructure’, alongside airports, power stations and motorways . . . It means ‘Camp Beagle’ demonstrators holding up placards outside a centre near Huntingdon that breeds dogs for laboratory testing could be prosecuted. John Curtin, an organiser at Camp Beagle, told The Independent . . . ‘They’re changing the law because we operate legally and peacefully. We’ve said the camp’s not going until this place is shut down. It’s business as usual. This is a disgusting act by the Labour Party who promised to get rid of animal testing. They’ll never live this down.’”
“Tens of thousands of people wrote to their MPs and members of the House of Lords to express their anger at the proposal before the vote. But the government managed to pass the amendment by 301 votes to 110 after the Tories appeared to abstain on the issue, having previously tried to introduce the same measure before the election.” 📰 Full Story →
Fort Collins Lab Receives New Citation Regarding Dog Health and Safety Following Increased Scrutiny
Steven Middendorp, Longmont Leader, 1/14/2026
“A Fort Collins research lab called Redbeast Enterprises has been cited again in a recently-released report for failing to adequately check on the health and safety of dogs used in animal testing. The routine inspection occurred on July 31, 2025, but the date of the report is December 4 because the lab reportedly appealed the citation. Redbeast Enterprises was cited with 11 animal welfare violations last February, including failure to document that dogs received anesthesia for debarking procedures that were conducted.”
“The most recent citation from a July USDA inspection states that there are no health check requests regarding the dog’s paw saliva staining and skin redness. The citation mentions two dogs that had redness between toes that was not documented, which could ‘indicate irritation, infection, trauma or other medical problems and could result in discomfort or pain to the animal.’” 📰 Full Story →
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