NIH’s Fauci-Holdover Animal Testing Czar Caught Lying About Funding Dog and Cat Experiments – Approved Millions While PETA Applauded

In a complaint filed with the National Institutes of Health, White Coat Waste has accused Dr. Nicole Kleinstreuer, the agency’s Deputy Director and overseer of its massive animal testing portfolio, of spreading outright lies about the agency’s funding of experiments on dogs and cats.

The filing demands corrections to Kleinstreuer’s false claims that these grants “predate” her tenure and that NIH is legally “constrained” to keep funding them, when in reality, millions in new and extended grants for painful, lethal tests on beagles and kittens have been approved under her leadership.

The complaint stems from Kleinstreuer’s appearance on an official NIH video podcast last July, where she tried to dodge criticism from WCW and animal lovers by insisting, “I understand that there’s part of the extramural portfolio that exists, that predates [us]. We are constrained under the law to leave those existing grants in place for now…. But to phase them out, we are working tirelessly behind the scenes.” She even claimed NIH was creating an “action plan to phase those out as quickly as possible under the law.”

However, WCW’s detailed analysis of NIH records paints a very different picture.

Far from being relics of Fauci’s past, these experiments have been actively funded and expanded during Kleinstreuer’s watch, which began in April of last year.

According to the complaint:

• NIH has greenlit over 30 new grants potentially involving dog experiments, totaling around $40 million. One egregious example: a nearly $3 million grant to a pharma company for lethal tests on 68 beagles, force-fed an implant for opioid treatment (Grant No. UG3DA062511).
• More than 45 existing grants for dog tests have been extended, with over $170 million awarded overall and at least $6 million in fresh funding. This includes over $900,000 in new money to Tufts University for force-feeding beagles diet pills mimicking gastric bypass (Grant No. R44DK141341).
• At least 3 new cat grants worth $1.1 million, including a University of Minnesota project where up to 60 kittens endure skull drilling, virus injections, induced strokes, paralysis, and death – with $486,100 doled out in August 2025 and more to come through 2030 (Grant No. R01NS140244).
• Over 10 extended cat grants totaling more than $45 million, with at least $533,961 new for spinal cord injuries and treadmill torture on cats (Grant No. R01NS110550).

These aren’t holdovers; they’re affirmative decisions by Kleinstreuer and her team to pump taxpayer dollars into what she herself called “unethical,” “misleading,” and “resource-intensive” animal models that “hold back progress in human health.”

WCW argues that this directly contradicts her podcast spin, violating federal information quality laws that require government officials to be accurate and objective.

Kleinstreuer’s actions also fly in the face of President Donald Trump’s push to slash wasteful government spending and end unnecessary animal cruelty.

Trump has repeatedly signaled support for reforming NIH’s bloated bureaucracy, including curbing Fauci-era disasters like these pet labs.

Yet under Kleinstreuer, a documented Fauci fan girl, the spending spree continues, wasting tens of millions while claiming to be legally handcuffed by non-existent restraints.

As WCW points out, NIH has full discretion to yank funding if it’s not in the “best interests of the Federal government,” per its own policies.

Back in June, Kleinstreuer desperately justified barbaric beagle experiments, like infesting 400 puppies with ticks at the University of Missouri, telling NPR that animal studies are “still very important and often scientifically justified” and can’t be phased out “overnight.”

Shockingly, radical left-wing groups like PETA and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) rushed to her defense, applauding her for supposedly “prioritizing animal-free, human-relevant research.”

PETA gushed on social media that they are “grateful” to Kleinstreuer for championing this move, even as she doubled down on defending the very tests they claim to oppose.

WAIT—YOU DIDN’T HEAR?

A guide for what @NIH will fund shows a recent change that prioritizes animal-free, human-relevant research.
We’re grateful to @NKleinstreuer, @NIHDirector_Jay, & @RobertKennedyJr for championing this move! https://t.co/DiVerjwinQ

— PETA (@peta) June 26, 2025

PETA, as The Gateway Pundit has repeatedly reported, has a history of spreading misinformation and trying to steal credit for White Coat Waste’s work, while trashing them publicly.

In 2021, PETA falsely claimed “Trump did nothing to stop animal experimentation,” ignoring the administration’s historic steps working with WCW to stop some of the government’s worst animal testing abuses. They deleted their post after it was exposed as a lie.

PETA even tried to smear WCW in The New Yorker out of apparent jealousy over their real victories, stating, “White Coat Waste has young-male-testosterone energy, and it seems like they attack all the other groups for fundraising purposes.”

Goodman responded at the time by telling The Gateway Pundit:

“We’re proud of our hard-hitting campaigns and historic victories against government animal labs that made this issue high politics, front page news, and won the support of President Trump, his family, and his administration. We’ll never apologize for aggressively fighting to save animals from government abuse and to hold federal bureaucrats accountable for lying to taxpayers and wasting animals’ lives and taxpayers’ money. PETA hates us because they ain’t us.”

In their complaint about Kleinstreuer, WCW demands NIH stop spreading these lies, issue a public retraction, clarify its authority to defund these labs immediately, and, if they insist on “phasing out,” provide a real timeline.

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WCW’s letter states:

White Coat Waste’s mission is to educate the public about and advocate to end the federal government’s use of billions of taxpayer dollars annually on cruel and wasteful animal experiments. NIH leadership’s false assertions regarding the agency’s authority and efforts to end its funding of dog and cat labs are critical misrepresentations that have caused WCW to continually divert its limited resources to expose NIH’s ongoing issuance of awards to fund these tests and respond to related inquiries from the deceived public, including the press, Trump administration, and Members of Congress.

Consistent with the NIH’s Agency Administrative Complaint Procedures, WCW requests that the agency (1) suspend further dissemination of these or similar false and misleading statements; and (2) issue a press release retracting these statements and clarifying the NIH’s authority to end funding for dog and cat experiments, that its award decisions were not required by law, and—if the NIH continues to assert that it is working to phase out these grants—a firm timeline for its phase-out.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. We look forward to your response within 60 calendar days.

Bureaucrats like Kleinstreuer talk a big game about ethics publicly while funneling your tax dollars into medieval torture chambers for man’s best friend.

It’s past time to end it.

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