Here’s a roundup of the week’s 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.
Still Buying Dogs from Ridglan? Now We See You…
Rise for Animals, 8/6/2025
NEW: The client list of Ridglan Farms, one of the country’s largest breeders of dogs used in research, is now revealed following our joint investigation with The Marty Project.
Currently under a court-mandated investigation for animal cruelty, Ridglan breeds thousands of dogs in its industrial-scale puppy mill, then sells them off to labs to be used in horrific experiments. Now you can know who’s still purchasing dogs and propping up this awful business: 📰 Full Story →
❗ Tell your U.S. members of Congress to stop funding animal experimentation with our federal tax dollars. Urge them to support the SPARE Act now. Send your letter now.
FASEB’s Letter to NIH Is a Blueprint for Sabotage
Rise for Animals, 8/7/2025
Exposed: An attempt to stall scientific progress and protect an industry built on animal suffering.
Here, we reveal the reality behind the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology’s rhetoric — and why letting industry voices write the rules will mean no real change for animals in labs: 📰 Full Story →
UMass ends monkey research targeted by activists, citing end of federal research funding
Scott Merzbach, Daily Hampshire Gazette, 8/1/2025
“A University of Massachusetts laboratory where marmoset monkeys have been used in medical research, leading to periodic protests on campus by animal rights activists, recently closed. While [PETA] on Thursday contended that the shuttering of the marmoset lab is the result of its legal action, officials at UMass are citing the expected end of federal research funding and a move to other research projects as reasons behind concluding the lab’s work.”
“In an April ruling in its 2022 Suffolk Superior Court lawsuit, PETA gained access to photos, videos and other documents associated with the research, and said it would be asking UMass trustees to shut down the laboratory . . . Dr. Katherine Roe, a neuroscientist at PETA, though, is concerned that the documents provided from the lawsuit reveal efforts to prevent the organization from getting public records. The records state that Lacreuse asked a former lab staffer to delete any photos on her computer, and questioned colleagues about how to avoid open records laws.” 📰 Full Story →
Rep. Nancy Mace Introduces Bill to End Taxpayer-Funded Radical Animal Experiments
Office of Congresswoman Nancy Mace, 8/1/2025
“ . . . Congresswoman Nancy Mace (SC-01) [has] introduced the Transgender Research on Animals Now Stops and Money for Ideological Cruelty Eliminated Act, also known as the TRANS MICE Act, to put an end to the use of taxpayer dollars for radical transgender-related experiments on animals.”
“Earlier this year, she chaired a House Oversight hearing titled ‘Transgender Lab Rats and Poisoned Puppies: Oversight of Taxpayer-Funded Animal Cruelty,’ where it was revealed at least $241 million in federal funds had been spent on gender-transition experiments involving animals.”
“The TRANS MICE Act bans the use of any federal funds to conduct, support, or fund research which seeks to alter an animal’s biological sex through drugs, hormones, surgeries, or other interventions, unless the species naturally undergoes sex changes or possesses both male and female reproductive organs.” 📰 Full Story →
UW violated free speech by blocking animal testing comments on social media, court rules
Kelly Meyerhofer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/5/2025
“The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s practice of blocking an animal rights activist’s negative comments from its social media accounts was unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision is a victory for Madeline Krasno, a UW-Madison alumna who sued in 2021 alleging the public university violated her First Amendment rights when it removed her comments criticizing the university’s animal research from its Facebook and Instagram posts.”
“The Aug. 1 ruling leaves UW-Madison with a couple of options: modify its social media approach, shut down the ability for the public to comment on its social media accounts or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. UW-Madison declined to comment on its next steps.” 📰 Full Story →
EXCLUSIVE: Federal Complaint Filed After NIH Bureaucrat Attacks Anti-Animal Testing Watchdog Group White Coat Waste, Goes After Board Members
Cassandra MacDonald, Gateway Pundit, 8/6/2025
“Warren Casey, Director of Strategic Partnerships at the NIH’s Division of Translational Toxicology and Executive Director of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), sent emails from his personal Gmail account to members of WCW’s advisory board, abusing his federal credentials to trash the organization and urge supporters to cut ties. Casey’s email, which appears to be a clear retaliation against WCW’s relentless exposure of NIH’s shady animal testing practices, opens by touting his 15-year tenure at NIH and his ICCVAM role to lend an air of official authority.”
“In response, WCW has filed a bombshell complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General, alleging Casey’s actions violate federal ethics rules, including misuse of official position (5 C.F.R. § 2635.702), improper use of government time (5 C.F.R. § 2635.705), and circumvention of transparency laws. The complaint details how Casey’s emails, sent during standard federal work hours (between 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM ET), used his NIH title without disclaimers to disseminate defamatory content and intimidate private citizens, raising serious First Amendment concerns.” 📰 Full Story →
EXCLUSIVE: Puppies secretly tested and killed at Ontario hospital for human heart research
Jenna Olsen & Robert Cribb, National Post, 8/7/2025
“Researchers inside the hospital’s Lawson Research Institute, studying heart attack recovery in humans, use the dogs as stand ins. They induce up to three-hour-long heart attacks in the animals before killing them and removing their hearts, according to internal photos, documents and two current staff members who work there. It is a clandestine process that has successfully kept the hospital’s long-standing dog research program hidden from the public and patients.”
“Under strict orders of confidentiality, staff bring the puppies — as young as 10 months and as old as two years when they arrive from U.S. breeders — into the hospital. According to one whistleblower, they play loud music to drown out the barking . . . Images staff say were taken inside the facility show dogs in cages with no beds. In one video, a dog lies motionless after a procedure, whimpering in high-pitched whistle tones. ‘They’re scared, they’re alone for 23 hours every day,’ says one staffer.”
“Following the procedures, the puppies are killed and their hearts are removed for further study, internal study protocol documents show . . . After the dogs are killed, staff put the carcasses in garbage bags and move them into massive barrels in the freezer, said the staffers . . . ‘They pile the dog bodies on top of each other, keep them there until the barrel is completely full, and then ship it off,’ said one. ‘It’s not just distressing, it’s emotionally abusive, and it takes a toll on everyone.’” 📰 Full Story →
For 30 years, over 1 million animals were kept in a 16,000 m² high-security laboratory at this abandoned site – today a monument to German brutalism
Sandy Al Assi, Secret Berlin, 8/7/2025
“For decades, animal experiments were carried out [inside the Mouse Bunker] under extreme safety precautions – sealed off, with underground supply systems, special ventilation systems and sealed doors.”
“The dimensions are frightening: up to 45,000 mice, 20,000 rats, 5,000 gerbils, 5,000 hamsters, 1,000 guinea pigs and other animals such as rabbits, pigs, sheep, frogs and chickens were allowed to be kept. It is estimated that a total of over one million animals were kept in the mouse bunker over the years and used for experiments. Animal operations were discontinued in summer 2020 and the building has been completely empty ever since.”
“The Mouse Bunker has evolved from a sealed-off high-security laboratory into one of the city’s most important monuments. More than just a lost place – it is a monumental work of art made of concrete, a historical site full of ethical ruptures and a symbol of the tension between modernity, displacement and the culture of remembrance.” 📰 Full Story →
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