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Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rand Paul (R-KY), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Mike Braun (R-IN), and Susan Collins (R-ME) sent a letter requesting further information about the cruel and inhumane experiments conducted on beagle puppies under the supervision of Dr. Anthony Fauci and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which involved severing the puppies’ vocal cords so they were unable to bark in pain.
 
“Dr. Fauci, we write to express deep concern about recent reports of inhumane experiments on beagle puppies conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the cost to taxpayers of $1.68 million,” the Senators wrote. “Even more troubling, this testing appears to have been elective on the part of NIAID, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said it ‘does not mandate that human drugs be studied in dogs.’”
 
The full text of the letter is below.  
 
Dr. Fauci:
 
We write to express deep concern about recent reports of inhumane experiments on beagle puppies conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at a cost to taxpayers of $1.68 million. 
 
One article reported that in addition to “force-feeding or injecting 44 beagle puppies aged 6-8 months old with an experimental drug before killing and dissecting them,” the research also “involved cutting the dogs’ vocal cords so they could not bark.” As you are surely aware, the leading U.S. veterinary organizations such as the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Animal Hospital Association “oppose non-therapeutic devocalization of dogs except…as a final alternative to relinquishment or euthanasia.”
 
Even more troubling, this testing appears to have been elective on the part of NIAID, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said it “does not mandate that human drugs be studied in dogs.” We therefore request answers to the following questions:

1. Did the FDA require NIAID to perform these toxicity tests on dogs? 
2. Did NIAID consult with the FDA about the possibility of using a method other than dog testing for its drug submission, as FDA guidelines allow and encourage?
3. Did the FDA require that the dogs be devocalized for the purpose of this testing?  If not, why was this procedure performed?

 
We look forward to your timely response.