In a move that’s both shameless and predictable, the deceptively named People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is doing the media rounds pretending to be heroes of the NIH beagle lab shutdown, when in reality they weren’t involved and killed more cats and dogs just last year than the now shuttered lab did in 40 years.
The real MVP in saving these animals was the White Coat Waste Project (WCW), a scrappy taxpayer watchdog with about six percent of PETA’s budget. Since 2016, the bipartisan organization has been relentlessly fighting to close down the National Institutes of Health’s cruel dog labs.
BeagleGate timeline:
– Nov ’16: WCW uncovers NIH lab, starts campaign
– Sep ’21: @PETA sues NIH (focus: )
– PETA suit mention NIH
– Apr ’25: @LauraLoomer
– May ’25: NIH closed
– labs? Still open
– May ‘25: PETA shows up to claim credit— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) May 7, 2025
As WCW was doing real work, PETA was collecting COVID bailout money and racking up a body count of cats and dogs, which made the NIH’s four-decade death tally look like amateur hour.
The NIH’s beagle lab, a house of horrors where these animals have been subjected to shocking experiments since 1986, was shuttered in May 2025 under the Trump administration’s NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya. Over the last 40 years, 2,133 beagles were tortured and killed by the researchers there.
NIH Director Dr. J. Bhattacharya says the agency ended beagle testing on its campus, and that PETA even sent him flowers in response.pic.twitter.com/JxBvduTM76
— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) May 5, 2025
Through relentless Freedom of Information Act requests, lawsuits, and lobbying, WCW uncovered information about 41 beagles killed from 2021 to 2022 and used this information to rally bipartisan support to defund the lab.
Despite having nothing to do with this massive win for animals, PETA began a media victory lap that was a masterclass in gaslighting. The organization quickly issued a press release practically claiming they single-handedly freed the beagles — and sent flowers and a thank you note to Dr. Bhattacharya. Their actual contribution? A 2021 lawsuit against the NIH that, surprise, didn’t even mention the beagle lab.
Instead, the group had only focused on the mouse experiments, ignoring the suffering of the pups.
That did not stop these shameless grifters from claiming in their press release that “PETA first publicly exposed NIH’s beagle sepsis experiment in 2020.” The experiments, however, were uncovered by WCW in 2016. If PETA’s mission was actually saving animals instead of collecting money and power, why not celebrate the organization doing the most to end the suffering and help build them up?
While PETA poses for the cameras and postures as great defenders of animals, their shelter in Norfolk, Virginia, is a death factory that might even make Dr. Anthony Fauci blush.
According to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), PETA’s Community Animal Project took in 3,117 dogs and cats in 2023 and euthanized 2,471 of them, a 79% kill rate. In 2024, petakillsanimals.com estimates PETA killed 2,174 dogs and cats, outpacing the NIH’s 2,133 beagle deaths over four decades in just one year.
PETA’s excuse for the mass slaughter? They take in “unadoptable” animals that are aggressive, sick, or elderly and offer free euthanasia to owners who can’t afford it.
Unfortunately, court cases tell a darker story.
In 2007, two PETA employees were tried for animal cruelty in North Carolina after dumping dead dogs and cats in a dumpster, including animals they claimed were “adorable” and “perfect.” In 2017, PETA paid $49,000 to a family after euthanizing their 9-year-old daughter’s chihuahua, Maya. Ingrid Newkirk, PETA’s president, has openly called pet ownership “an abysmal situation” and said, “If people want toys, they should buy inanimate objects.” She also advocates for the complete eradication of certain species, most notably pitbulls.
“If people want toys, they should buy inanimate objects. If they want companionship, they should seek it with their own kind,” PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk has said. “In the end, I think it would be lovely if we stopped this whole notion of pets altogether.”
Documents uncovered by PETAKillsAnimals.com indicated that following an inspection of the PETA facilities, the Commonwealth of Virginia was so shocked by the number of animals that they kill each year that the state inspector attempted to revoke their license to operate a shelter.
Dr. Daniel Kovich, the investigator with the VDACS who conducted the inspection of PETA’s animal shelter at its Virginia headquarters in July 2010, determined that “the facility does not contain sufficient animal enclosures to routinely house the number of animals annually reported as taken into custody.”
It turns out that this is because PETA has never intended to keep animals that are surrendered to them.
“After reviewing two months worth of records, Kovich found that 245 of the 290 animals–84 percent–that PETA took into custody were killed within 24 hours. Only 17 were reported as adopted or in foster homes. Kovich noted that PETA’s shelter did not meet PETA’s own published guidelines for operating a humane animal shelter,” PETA Kills Animals reports.
In 2021, The Gateway Pundit revealed photos of PETA’s kill room and freezer that were provided by a whistleblower who previously worked with the organization.
FDA’s Move to Phase Out Animal Testing Hailed as Victory for White Coat Waste Project
The organization’s egregious nonsense does not stop there. Though they are kissing up to the administration now, PETA has spent the last few years attacking Trump to pander to potential liberal donors.
Their X posts and blogs from 2021–2024 are littered with anti-Trump rhetoric, from mocking his environmental policies to slamming his administration’s animal testing stance, completely ignoring that Trump had made many moves to curb animal research during his first term.
In fact, in 2019, during his first term, the Trump administration closed the government’s largest cat lab. Still, PETA claimed in a now-deleted tweet that “Unfortunately, Trump did nothing to stop animal experimentation. Funny, since Trump did more than their organization has!
WCW is the only animal advocacy organization to shut down any government primate lab in nearly a decade, any government dog testing labs in almost 20 years, and any government cat lab in the last 40 years.
Just yesterday, the Department of Defense confirmed the cancellation of a $10 million contract to shove marbles up the anuses of cats and electroshock them, after Laura Loomer and White Coat Waste exposed the cruel experiments.
In April, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans to phase out animal testing requirements, starting with monoclonal antibodies and expanding to other drugs after a long pressure campaign from WCW.
FDA’s Move to Phase Out Animal Testing Hailed as Victory for White Coat Waste Project
The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also pledged to eliminate animal testing, reinstating a plan originally introduced during President Trump’s first term and squashed by Joe Biden.
Earlier this week, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins confirmed the department will end at least some of its primate testing before the 2026 deadline set by Congress. Since 2016, WCW had worked to expose how the VA was giving puppies heart attacks, injecting monkeys with angel dust, crippling kittens, drilling into cat’s skulls, and much more.
Now, PETA is suddenly eager to “help” rehome the NIH’s surviving beagles, “depending on their condition.” Why the newfound interest? Perhaps because it’s a PR win, unlike their usual business of euthanizing animals. If PETA’s track record is any guide, those beagles might be better off steering clear of Norfolk.
PETA’s attempt to hog the spotlight for the NIH beagle lab shutdown is a classic case of stolen valor. White Coat Waste Project did the heavy lifting—exposing the lab, rallying lawmakers, and mobilizing public outrage—while PETA was preoccupied with their own slaughterhouse and political point-scoring.
The numbers don’t lie: PETA killed 2,174 dogs and cats in 2024 alone, dwarfing the NIH’s 2,133 beagle deaths over 40 years. If PETA wants to take credit for anything, it’s their unmatched efficiency in turning shelters into morgues. As for the beagles? They’re free, no thanks to PETA’s late-to-the-party flowers.
The post PETA’s 2024 Pet Slaughter (2,174) Beats NIH’s Beagle Lab (2,133 in 40 Years), But Now They’re Posing as Heroes and Offering to Rehome Lab Survivors appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.