The Trump administration has slashed over $1 million in taxpayer funding for controversial animal experiments that were creating “transgender rats” to test party drug overdose risks. This major win for fiscal conservatives follows whistleblower revelations about millions wasted on questionable research involving hormone injections and surgeries on rodents. Can you believe this is…real?
At a glance:
• The Trump administration cut over $1 million in NIH funding for research on “transgender animals”
• Experiments involved castrating male rats, removing female rats’ ovaries, and injecting them with hormones before testing reactions to GHB (a party drug)
• The White Coat Waste Project exposed the research through Freedom of Information Act requests
• The University of Pacific Stockton received the taxpayer funds for studying if hormone therapy increased overdose risk
• This is part of broader Trump administration efforts with DOGE to eliminate wasteful government spending
Millions in Taxpayer Dollars Redirected from Animal Experiments
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has terminated funding for controversial research that subjected rats to hormone treatments and surgeries to study the effects of cross-sex hormones on drug overdose vulnerability. White Coat Waste Project, a nonprofit dedicated to ending taxpayer-funded animal testing, uncovered details of the experiments through Freedom of Information Act requests.
You might have heard about it already, and you might have thought it was too insane to be true. But…it is.
The experiments at University of Pacific Stockton involved castrating male rats, removing female rats’ ovaries, and injecting them with hormones before exposing them to Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate (GHB), a substance sometimes associated with date-rape cases. Documents show researchers received over $1 million in federal grants for these studies aimed at analyzing hormone therapy effects on overdose risk.
Conservative Lawmakers Praise Funding Cuts
Anthony Bellotti, Founder and President of White Coat Waste Project, celebrated the decision to cut funding. “This is a great victory for taxpayers and animals,” Bellotti said, adding, “Despite the mainstream media’s shameful misinformation campaign, transgender animal experiments are real – and really wasteful.”
Republican lawmakers quickly praised the administration’s move to stop what they characterized as wasteful spending. Rep. Nancy Mace highlighted the questionable scientific value of the experiments, saying, “We spent over $1 million to find out if female rats receiving testosterone therapy were more likely to overdose on a date rape drug.”
Sen. Joni Ernst has been vocal about government waste in animal testing, stating, “Since last year, I’ve exposed how the Biden administration got caught in the woke mousetrap and wasted millions of tax dollars on transgender animal experiments.”
How many more insane experiments like this are we going to find over the next four years?
