The USDA’s 2025 animal research numbers are out. Here are the top takeaways from our preliminary review:
(1) 995 Labs Reported Over 1.9 Million Animals
So far, the USDA has posted 2025 Annual Reports for 995 animal research facilities. Together, those facilities reported holding or using more than 1,900,000 animals, including over one million fish.
Fish are not covered by the Animal Welfare Act—their exploitation is not regulated under the law, and the USDA directs labs not to report them. This legal exclusion carries no ethical weight, however. Fish are animals; their exploitation and suffering matter; and including the reported fish gives us a fuller view of the animal experimentation industry.
That fuller view is valuable, but it does require context: because only some labs choose to report fish, and because fish are exploited in huge numbers, their selective inclusion in annual reports can significantly affect yearly totals and year-to-year comparisons. That is why we must look at the data in two ways: with fish included and with fish excluded. Including fish, labs reported over 1.9 million animals; excluding fish, the reported total drops to just under 860,000 animals.
(2) Reported Animal Use Is Down from 2024
In total, animal research facilities reported approximately 13.5% fewer animals in 2025 than in 2024. But that figure is, of course, also heavily affected by the episodic reporting of fish, and labs voluntarily reported fewer fish in 2025 than in 2024. When fish are excluded from both years, the estimated decline in animal use from 2024 to 2025 drops to roughly 3.5%.
The overall decline was driven by drops in most species-specific use totals, including dogs, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, sheep, pigs, and animals classified as “other.” “Other” animals—who range from wild mice to elephants—still made up the largest group of reported victims in 2025. Together, they represented more than 70% of all reported animals when voluntarily reported fish are included, and more than 36% when those fish are excluded.
(3) Fewer Dogs Reported, But More Held By Labs
Labs reported holding or using just over 41,000 dogs in 2025, down almost 4% from 2024. That is good news.
At the same time, the number of dogs reported in Column B increased by over 80%. Column B includes animals held by labs but not used in experiments during the reporting year, including animals held for breeding, conditioning, and other purposes. The cause of that increase appears to be Ridglan Farms, the country’s second-largest breeder of dogs for research. Ridglan’s 2025 Annual Report lists 2,549 dogs in Column B, up from 10 in 2024.
Ridglan’s report follows years of extraordinary circumstances surrounding the facility. After intense public scrutiny, a court-ordered investigation, and a major grassroots campaign against the breeder and research facility, Ridglan announced it would stop breeding dogs for sale by July 2026.
Exactly why Ridglan reported such a dramatic increase in Column B is not totally clear, but we suspect it may have been an administrative decision to report dogs as part of its research—rather than its breeding-for-sale—operation. What is clear is that this single facility’s reporting appears to account for the nationwide increase, underscoring both the outsized role of major breeders in the animal research pipeline and the USDA’s laxity around reporting rules.
(4) Cat Use Increased, and So Did Extreme Suffering
Unlike most species-specific totals, reported cat use increased in 2025. Labs reported holding or using more than 12,500 cats, an increase of more than 4% from 2024.
Even more disturbingly, the number of cats assigned to Column E increased by 25%. Column E is the category reporting the use of animals in painful or distressing experiments without pain relief.
(5) Monkey Use Increased Amid Federal Calls for Reduction
Labs reported using almost 106,000 nonhuman primates in 2025—an increase of more than 1% over 2024. That is more than 1,000 additional monkeys trapped in labs.
This increase, and its timing, is something to emphasize. Recently, federal agencies have spoken publicly about reducing primate experimentation. Some institutions have rebranded to make monkey experimentation less visible. One National Primate Research Center has entered talks about transitioning from a research and breeding center to a sanctuary. Yet just last year, labs reported more monkeys—not fewer.
The Picture Is Incomplete
We have identified over 30 laboratories listed by the USDA as “active” when the annual reports were published, but for which the USDA has not yet posted a 2025 report. That means any analysis of the 2025 numbers must be understood for what it is: a review of the available data, not a complete account of regulated animal use in laboratories.
Moreover, even if the USDA’s reporting were complete, the picture would still be radically limited by design. The USDA’s Annual Reports exclude the vast majority of animals used for research, including mice, rats, and birds bred for research; farmed animals used in agricultural research; cold-blooded animals; reptiles; invertebrates; and more. As a result, the USDA’s official reporting system is estimated to capture less than 1% of all animals exploited by U.S. laboratories.
Yet these official records still matter. They show us who labs admit to harming—and they expose some of those causing the harm.
The Final Takeaway: We Need the Full Truth—and an End to this System
The available 2025 data is incomplete, representing only what the animal research industry admits to through a federal reporting system that excludes most of its victims. Yet even this limited record gives reason for hope.
Reported animal use appears to be falling overall and across most species-specific categories. In a system built to breed, confine, harm, and kill animals day after day, year after year, that is not a small thing. It signals fewer bodies moving through the pipeline, fewer victims reduced to inventory, and fewer lives reduced to numbers on federal forms.
The animal research industry wants us to believe it is immovable—that we are no match for its power and influence. But the 2025 data suggests otherwise, and that alone should encourage us in our fight:
For full transparency.
For real accountability.
For every victim of “science.”
And, most of all, for the liberation of all animals from all labs.
The 2025 data suggests we are making progress toward that goal. Let’s keep going.