Jumping the gun, the animal rights group drove its advocacy van to the Trump winter White House at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, to urge the incoming president and his Department of Government Efficiency to focus first on ending costly animal testing at the National Institutes of Health when they take over from the Biden administration.

We’re sharing an important message with President-elect Trump: The NIH doesn’t give a rat’s a** about waste! When it comes to trimming government spending, why not start with the $23 billion @NIH blows on useless animal experiments every day? https://t.co/nHLmHedNh7 pic.twitter.com/mzJ3ghQjsR

— PETA (@peta) December 20, 2024

“President Trump: NIH Doesn’t Give a Rat’s A** About Waste. Cut $23 Billion,” said panels on an advertising truck the group drove around the president’s resort on South Ocean Boulevard. It also showed the image of a cute white rat.

“Ending the waste at NIH starts with slamming the brakes on the runaway gravy train that funnels billions of taxpayer dollars each year into cruel, worthless experiments on animals,” said PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA urges President-elect Trump to redirect taxpayer funds to modern research that will both spare animals and speed up treatments and cures for humans.”

Scientists have a plan to modernize research now @RobertKennedyJr https://t.co/nvz9pHX1WR pic.twitter.com/MzDtxeixV8

— PETA (@peta) December 20, 2024

While it’s likely far down the list of cuts DOGE leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are considering, PETA hopes its simple effort will push animal testing up their list.

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The group claims that NIH “squanders” nearly half its annual budget on projects involving animal experiments. It has urged the agency to switch to more animal-friendly testing and science.

In addition to fighting against rat tests, PETA has made a federal case out of testing on monkeys at NIH. It describes those tests as “pointless studies funded by NIH include forcing monkeys to stare at photos of candidates to see if they can predict winners, ripping infant monkeys from their mothers and forcing them to wear strobe-effect goggles for 12 hours a day, and relentlessly shocking the feet of mice, supposedly to cause panic attacks.”