Right now, your tax dollars are funding imprisonment and torture of an unknown number of animals. And, we mean that literally.
The NIH — the single largest funder of animal research in the world — doesn’t even know how many animals are suffering in the labs it bankrolls. Why? Because it doesn’t ask.
Each year, the NIH doles out roughly $20 billion for animal research across more than 800 animal research facilities. Yet, almost unbelievably, these government-funded facilities are neither asked nor required to report how many animals they breed, use, and kill.
Instead, these labs are allowed to submit vague, incomplete, and practically useless “estimates” once every few years. They — the labs — get to decide who counts, how to count them, and what to include. As a result, lab submissions do not provide actual counts but, rather, amalgamations like “average daily” numbers and the numbers of cages, tanks, and racks (not the lives they confine).
Worse still, the NIH doesn’t even compile the scraps of data is does receive — and that’s no accident. Afterall, this is the same agency that explicitly tells grant recipients to report as little as possible and to not provide more information than absolutely necessary.
But now, a new bill could help shed light on labs’ operations.
The Federal Animal Research Accountability Act of 2025 (H.R. 3295) would finally force the NIH to collect the number of animals bred, used, and killed by NIH-funded labs — and to make that data public.
It would better expose the scale of federally-funded animal exploitation, and it would let the public track the NIH’s progress toward its supposed goal of reducing animal use — a goal that’s all but meaningless if no one knows the starting point.
We know that secrecy protects those who profit from violence.
We know transparency threatens that power.
And we know that’s exactly why this bill matters.
Rise for Animals and our allies endorse this bill, and we ask that you do the same.
Your call to action: The Federal Animal Research Accountability Act of 2025 (H.R. 3295) would finally force the NIH to collect the number of animals bred, used, and killed by NIH-funded labs, and make that data public. Take 30 seconds to send your letter now:
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