U.S. government grants are financing cruel animal experiments that have little or no scientific merit, according to a report by a nonprofit organization that monitors federal spending.
Illinois-based American Transparency tracked dozens of government funding outlays that are at best fiscally questionable and at worst downright fraudulent, the New York Post reported.
Here are four glaring examples from the American Transparency report of wasteful, taxpayer-funded animal cruelty:
“Zombie” Russian Cats – $549,331
Heinous experiments in a Russian research facility turned healthy cats into electrically-controlled zombies. Researchers at the Pavlov Institute of Physiology in St. Petersburg, Russia, severed the cats’ brain stems to prevent movement while keeping them alive. The scientists then cruelly used electrical charges to make the cats walk on treadmills.
Wind-Blasted Lizards – $75,000
In a harsh experiment funded by the National Science Foundation that was billed as a climate change study, Harvard scientists used a leaf blower to blast lizards with wind speeds of up to 108 mph. The scientists filmed the lizards desperately hanging onto sticks and kept recording as they went flying.
Transgendered Monkeys – $477,121
A Florida lab is dosing male rhesus macaques with feminizing hormones in order to change their gender. The experiment was funded by the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) with a roundabout aim of helping find out out why transgender humans suffer high levels of HIV infection.
Shrimp Running on Treadmills – $1.3 million
The National Science Foundation subjected shrimp to the unnatural experience of a laboratory treadmill, purportedly to test the mobility of illness-impaired shrimp. College of Charleston researchers measured the crustaceans’ responses to low oxygen and high carbon dioxide environments despite public outrage and criticism.
Because of genetic differences between species, data from tests on animals is inherently unreliable – failing nearly 96% of the time – and can’t guarantee effective applications to humans. Lady Freethinker supports safer, more compassionate, more reliable and more cost-effective human biology-based alternatives.
