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.
“Any Female Can Be Bred”: Researchers’ War on Female Bodies
Rise for Animals, 4/8/2026
At NIH-funded National Primate Research Centers, researchers subject female monkeys to forced breeding, invasive reproductive procedures, and pregnancy experimentation under the term “timed mating.”
We’re exposing this industrialized violence and why animal liberation is inseparable from feminism. 📰 Full Story →
Baby Macaque Discarded Alive in Cooler at UW Lab
Rise for Animals, 4/9/2026
University of Washington (UW) staff presumed a newborn monkey dead, shut the infant inside a cooler, and found the baby still breathing an hour later.
Now, as UW prepares for AAALAC accreditation renewal, an urgent question looms: what—or whom—does “oversight” actually protect? 📰 Full Story →
Pig’s asphyxiation death prompts filing of federal complaint against University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Nathan Ansell, Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 4/2/2026
“An animal welfare organization has filed a federal complaint against the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, claiming that the fatal asphyxiation of a pig at the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute violated federal law.”
“According to Gopee’s letter, the [Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare at the National Institutes of Health] had been informed that the pig attempted to manipulate the door of its cage to open it and became entrapped between the door and floor due to ‘mechanical failure.’” 📰 Full Story →
Indianapolis company cited for ‘critical’ animal welfare violations
Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star, 4/3/2026
“The federal government cited an Indiana-based company for three ‘critical’ violations of animal welfare law after dozens of rabbits died at its facility in Denver, Pennsylvania.”
“Envigo RMS, an Indianapolis-based company acquired by Inotiv in 2021, breeds lab animals for academic and medical research. . . . According to a March 17 report, 72 rabbits died between August 2024 and March 2026 because Envigo did not provide adequate veterinary care. Four rabbits escaped from their enclosures and were washed down a gutter into a wastewater holding tank; 11 drowned after a water system malfunctioned, flooding their enclosures; 13 died of thirst after their water supply clogged for two days; 44 died or were euthanized after slipping through their cages’ floors, causing serious injuries.” 📰 Full Story →
GOP targets transgender animal testing in defund demand to NIH
Elaine Mallon, Fox News, 4/3/2026
“A group of Republican lawmakers are pushing to block federal funding for transgender experiments on animals in the fiscal year 2027 spending bill. A letter spearheaded by Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and backed by GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and more than a dozen other lawmakers asks appropriators to include language in the fiscal year 2027 spending bill banning federal funding for research on animals studying the effects of ‘drugs, surgery, or other interventions’ intended to alter the human body.”
“Just days ago, Just the News reported that the NIH awarded another $584,117 to the University of California, San Diego for fiscal year 2026 to continue a mouse study examining the effects of cross-sex hormone treatments. The lawmakers noted in their letter that language explicitly banning transgender experiments on animals was also included in the 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill.” 📰 Full Story →
Animal Rights Groups Say Oversight Board at OHSU Primate Center Has Too Many Internal Employees
Anthony Effinger, Willamette Week, 4/3/2026
“Two animal rights groups sent written complaints to government agencies today, alleging that the committee overseeing the Oregon National Primate Research Center is overstaffed with members who work for the center, which if true is a violation of the Animal Welfare Act of 1966.”
“The Physicians Committee says at least seven IACUC members are on the primate center’s staff. PETA says 10 are directly affiliated with the center. ‘This composition appears to substantially exceed the regulatory limit on representation from a single administrative unit,’ PETA said in its complaint to the USDA.”
“Because the IACUC is improperly weighted toward primate center employees, it can’t fulfill its legal obligations to ensure that staff there considered alternatives to animal testing in every case, or that unnecessary experiments on animals weren’t duplicated, the Physicians Committee says.” 📰 Full Story →
‘Monkey Business’: Pentagon Sued for US Taxpayer-Funded Primate Labs
Nick Mordowanec, Military.com, 4/3/2026
“The Pentagon has been sued for allegedly failing to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests pertaining to multi-million-dollar U.S. taxpayer-funded primate experiments at home and abroad.”
“White Coat Waste (WCW), a bipartisan government watchdog, filed the lawsuit against the Department of Defense to force the release of photos, videos and other records about what they describe as secretive U.S. military primate labs in Thailand and Peru, as well in the United States. . . . WCW alleges that the specific military primate labs they’ve investigated are breeding and buying hundreds of monkeys, subjecting them to painful experiments that involve sleep deprivation, surgical mutilation, exposure to bioweapons like anthrax, and infection with Ebola and other deadly diseases.” 📰 Full Story →
NIH Faces Blowback Over Controversial Dog Research
Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal, 4/6/2026
“Two advocacy groups are calling for the cancellation of taxpayer-funded medical research on dogs at a Michigan lab, claiming that the ‘experiments’ have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of dogs.”
“Representatives from the two groups—the Wilberforce Institute, a conservative animal rights group, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which opposes animal experiments—are set to speak Monday with officials from the National Institutes of Health about canceling funding for the lab at Wayne State University in Detroit. Last week, leaders of the two organizations wrote to Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya to deny future funding for the Wayne State lab.” 📰 Full Story →
WAN Exclusive! From Racetrack To Research Lab: Retired Racehorses Abused In New NIH Experiments
World Animal News, 4/7/2026
“According to documents obtained by [White Coat Waste (WCW)] through the Freedom of Information Act, a lab at Cornell University, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is subjecting retired racehorses to invasive and deeply troubling miscarriage experiments.”
“In these experiments, mares as young as four and as old as 22 are artificially inseminated, only to have their pregnancies deliberately terminated weeks later. Tubes are inserted through their cervixes to extract embryos, which are then dissected. Over the course of the project, approximately 80 horses are expected to endure these cruel procedures. Many of these animals are former racehorses, individuals who were used for profit on the track and have already endured significant physical demands. Instead of being given the chance to live out their lives in peace, they are now being funneled into laboratories for further exploitation.”
“The project began with $924,002 in taxpayer funding in June 2025 and is expected to receive an additional $3.6 million, running through 2030.” 📰 Full Story →
Would you adopt a lab animal?
Melanie D. Kaplan, National Geographic, 4/8/2026
“In the last 12 years, 17 U.S. states passed laws requiring labs to make healthy dogs and cats available for adoption after testing is completed. . . . But traditional companion animals aren’t the only ones living new lives outside of labs. Among the 130 non-human residents of Kindness Ranch are llamas, horses, cows, goats, sheep and pigs, most of whom were used in veterinary training or nutrition studies. Other sanctuaries, including Peaceable Primate Sanctuary in Indiana and Project Chimps in Georgia, provide homes for former research primates. . . . Labs have found post-research homes for ferrets, chinchillas, skinks, voles, fish, birds, and even tarantulas.”
“One of the greatest challenges among those working to rehome former research animals is earning the trust of science institution staff, who want to avoid inviting attention to their animal research operations. That’s less of an issue when the person coordinating the adoptions is on the inside. Holly Nguyen . . . is a prostate cancer researcher at the University of Washington. Over the years, Nguyen has seen many potentially adoptable lab animals—especially rats and mice—killed at the end of studies. . . . She founded Washington Adoption Center for Retired Research Animals (WACRRA) . . . WACRRA has partnerships with six institutions in the Seattle area, whose staff contact Nguyen when they have adoptable animals. As part of the arrangement, she agrees to keep confidential the names of the institutions. So far she’s found homes for around 400 mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, and ferrets and has adopted one herself, a Syrian hamster named Marble….”
“In Virginia, Eva Cross runs Second Chance Heroes Rat Adoptions. Among the 800 rats she’s rehomed, more than 100 have been from labs, some as far away as Wisconsin. ‘People want to adopt former lab animals,’ says Cross. ‘I think it’s maybe less known that rats can be good pets and companions.’”
“[A three-month-old New Zealand white rabbit, “who began his life in a research lab”] inspired [Mallory] Cormier to start Save the Buns, a nonprofit that partners with local laboratories to rehome research bunnies. Cormier has now brought 17 rabbits out of research….” 📰 Full Story →
Monkey business: Small fleet keeps getting violations for handling lab animals
Alex Lockie, Overdrive, 4/8/2026
“A Nevada-based small fleet has come under fire from animal rights activists after getting two new citations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture relating to the carrier’s transport of live monkeys.”
“JKL Secure Freight (the dba name for LR Transport LLC) racked up two new citations from USDA in January, which brings the total to 10 total citations in the last four years, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The new citations ding JKL for violating the Animal Welfare Act by twice failing to maintain valid health certificates after transporting monkeys across state lines, and failing to check on monkeys every four hours during transport as required.”
“Overdrive looked into the citations, and while they can cary [sic] a civil penalty of $10,000, there’s no sign JKL actually got penalized. Both citations in January simply advised JKL to ‘Correct by 23 February 2026 for all future nonhuman primate shipments.’ Somehow, JKL keeps getting work in the monkey business.” 📰 Full Story →
Help spread the word. Share this news compilation on Facebook, X, or Bluesky.