A Tunisian research lab and Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases were embroiled in scandal in 2021 over revelations of cruel experiments on beagles, and new documents from an animal rights group reveals the Biden administration was aware of the NIAID’s coverup.
FOIA documents obtained by White Coat Waste (WCW) Project and provided to the Daily Caller revealed Fauci and his agency worked to cover up their funding of the beagle experiments the same day the Tunisian lab admitted both publicly and privately that NIAID provided the funding.
The Caller first reported in 2021 that Congress probed NIAID for funding abusive tests on beagles.
The infamous image of beagles’ heads stuffed in bags teeming with sand flies resulted in visceral outrage, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene displayed the image at a congressional hearing this past June.
👀 Leighton Woodhouse on Fauci’s Beagle Experiment and the Orchestrated Cover-Up to Blame It On a ‘Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory’
“There was an experiment that was performed on a number of beagles in which they had their heads placed into mesh bags that were filled with starved… pic.twitter.com/oy5OWPhbkx
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) June 9, 2024
The hashtag “ArrestFauci” trended on Twitter in October of 2021 after revelations came to light of cruel NIAID-funded experiments on beagles – sending NIAID into a panic. (RELATED: Fauci Under Fire For Gain-Of-Function Research, Testing On Dogs)
The sand fly experiments were conducted in a Tunisian lab called the Pasteur Institute. In Tunisia, there are no laws that protect the animals undergoing testing and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has zero oversight, according to WCW.
Animal rights organizations in Tunisia called for protests outside the Pasteur Institute in Facebook groups, according to emails detailing the backlash on social media.
“Beaglegate” went viral in October of 2021, and on Oct. 24, staff from the State Department and Tunisian Embassy shared clips of WCW’s work internally, documents show.
On Oct. 25, the U.S. Embassy spoke to a Tunisian dog researcher via phone who verified the experiments were funded by the NIH. The researcher stated the experiments were “presented in a wrong and distasteful way” and denied allegations of animal abuse.
U.S. Embassy staff relayed to then-Ambassador Donald Blome (who is copied on many of the emails) that the institute’s director confirmed Fauci’s NIAID funded the lab in an Oct. 25 radio interview.
Pasteur Institute President Hechmi Louzir stated the research was funded by the NIH and the U.K.-based Wellcome Trust, according to emails.
Documents obtained by WCW revealed Fauci complained to his staff that he was “bombarded by protests” over animal testing. That same day, Fauci and his team scrambled to smear the story as false, disseminating misinformation to corporate media outlets like The Washington Post.
“#FauciLiedDogsDied isn’t just a Donald Trump, Jr. t-shirt slogan, it’s the truth about Beaglegate. In 2021, WCW followed the money to Fauci’s Tunisian dog lab, where records we obtained via a FOIA lawsuit prove he funded experiments on beagles who were drugged and locked in lab cages with biting flies to be eaten alive,” WCW Founder and President Anthony Bellotti said. “We’ve exposed how Fauci and his team fabricated and spread disinformation denying they funded it and how Fauci broke federal law by using his personal email to evade FOIA requests about Beaglegate. And now we’ve uncovered that even the lab in Tunisia admitted to the US Embassy and media that Fauci funded the barbaric beagle testing there.”
“Fauci is the poster child for government corruption and Congress needs to hold him accountable for his abuses, which carry criminal penalties including fines and jail time,” he added.
Journalist Leighton Woodhouse documented how a researcher involved in the experiment, Abhay Satoskar, emailed NIAID about the paper detailing the beagle experiments and claimed: “The grant was mistakenly cited as a funding source in the paper.”
He then emailed Shaden Kamhawi, the editor of the journal that published the paper – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases – and requested a correction. Kamhawi is an NIAID employee, and she emailed her colleagues at the publication about a potential conflict of interest.
The journal now includes the statement: “The US National Institutes of Health and the Wellcome Trust did not provide any funding for this research and any such claim was made in error.”
Except, NIH communications revealed the NIAIAD’s only evidence their funds did not go towards the Tunisian beagle experiment was Satoskar’s statement. Regardless, this was sent to reporters as bombshell proof debunking the scandal. (RELATED: MALLIOTAKIS AND BELLOTTI: WHen It Comes To Gov’t Animal Abuse, Fauci Was Just The Tip Of The Iceberg)
“The truth is out: Fauci funded dog experiments overseas and misled the public, press, and Congress about it. We’ve been relentless in holding Fauci and the NIH accountable, and now we’re leading the bipartisan PAAW Act to cut off funding for the rest of the painful tests on dogs and cats that Fauci signed off on during his time at the NIH,” Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, who has been a leading lawmaker on the Fauci-animal experimentation issue, told the Caller.
A Washington Post opinion column reinforced the NIH’s claims on Oct. 25 in a piece titled “Why is Anthony Fauci trying to kill my puppy?”
The NIAID also issued a statement that claimed it funded a separate, less cruel study involving vaccinating dogs against leishmaniasis. The dogs were apparently free to roam around in an “enclosed open space during the day.”
NIAID statement: didn’t fund that study https://t.co/V152oBn6GX pic.twitter.com/rKdYtT5oNB
— Dana Milbank (@Milbank) October 26, 2021
The NIH also removed the sand fly study from its database, and a November 2021 article covering the outrage noted the study was absent from the database of projects funded by the NIAID.
However, this past June, the Post finally conceded the “NIH was not fully transparent” about its role in funding cruel beagle experiments.