{"id":778595,"date":"2025-06-19T07:54:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T11:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=778595"},"modified":"2025-06-19T08:47:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T12:47:22","slug":"bold-lies-nih-animal-research-budget-cuts-arent-what-industry-wants-you-to-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=778595","title":{"rendered":"Big Bold Lies: NIH animal research budget cuts aren\u2019t what biopharma industry wants you to think"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is neck-deep in biopharma\u2019s pockets. AAAS explicitly endorses animal experimentation in official statements, pumps out pro-animal research propaganda (including through its journal, Science), smears animal rights activists as 'extremists' while lionizing researchers who champion animal experimentation, lobbies for animal research, blocks legislative reforms, and defends NIH\u2019s bloated animal research budget at every turn.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

RISE FOR ANIMALS:<\/strong> As the U.S. government reviews, trims, and freezes funding for so-called \u201cscientific research\u201d, the animal research industry is scrambling to defend its billions \u2013 and it\u2019s lying all the way to the bank. Make no mistake: behind the industry\u2019s classic smoke-and-mirrors is a ruthless fight to preserve its power, profit, and self-professed \u201cright\u201d to harm others for its own gain.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here are the latest lies the industry is telling \u2013 and what\u2019s really going on:<\/em><\/p>\n

LIE #1: Biopharma is not advocating for itself.<\/strong> We\u2019re being told that entities testifying before Congress are neutral and independent of the for-profit biomedical machine. Take, for example, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Its CEO recently testified, hand-wringing over the \u201c\u2018paralysis\u2019\u201d of U.S. science. Media outlets obediently parroted the story, painting AAAS as a dispassionate voice for science \u2013 not a player in biopharma\u2019s billion-dollar empire…<\/em><\/p>\n

AAAS is neck-deep in biopharma\u2019s pockets. The NIH alone has been AAAS\u2019 single \u201c\u2018largest identifiable source of funding\u2019\u201d, and, between 2004 and 2018, the U.S. government funneled more than $27 million to AAAS (mostly via NIH contracts). And that\u2019s just the government piece of the pie. AAAS cozies up to biotech and pharma giants through research partnerships and corporate sponsorships…<\/em><\/p>\n

Moreover, AAAS explicitly endorses animal experimentation in official statements, is an organizational member of AAALAC (appointing delegates to help oversee and accredit animal research facilities), pumps out pro-animal research propaganda (including through its flagship journal, Science), smears animal rights activists as \u201cextremists\u201d while lionizing researchers who champion animal experimentation, and directly lobbies for animal research, blocking legislative reforms and defending NIH\u2019s bloated animal research budget at every turn…<\/em><\/p>\n

LIE #2: NIH funding has been gutted.<\/strong> Reports indicate that NIH grants are down $2.3 billion from earlier this year. But, here\u2019s the context the industry doesn\u2019t want you to see: the NIH\u2019s total budget still hovers around a staggering $50 billion \u2013 meaning more than 95% of the agency\u2019s budget remains intact. That\u2019s not gutting. That\u2019s a tiny dent in the ever-ballooning budget of an agency that has long spent half of its money \u2013 tens of billions of dollars annually \u2013 on animal experiments…<\/em><\/p>\n

LIE #3: Funding cuts will kill human cures.<\/strong> This is the industry\u2019s favorite scare tactic: Cut our funding, and you\u2019ll never see cures for Alzheimer\u2019s, diabetes, childhood cancer, or muscular dystrophy. But, let\u2019s get real: These \u201ccures\u201d have been dangled in front of us for decades, even as funding kept climbing. Where are they? Still out of reach, apparently… Decades of soaring funding have not delivered the cures we\u2019ve been promised, while billions have been wasted chasing (and re-chasing, and re-chasing) dead ends…<\/em><\/p>\n

LIE #4: The federal government is sabotaging science.<\/strong> That\u2019s the spin, but, in actuality, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made it crystal clear that this isn\u2019t random slashing \u2013 it\u2019s a \u201c\u2018strategic realignment\u2019\u201d designed to prioritize\u201c\u2018high-impact, high-urgency science over auto-piloted funding partners\u2019\u201d… The NIH is (finally) questioning its endless rubber-stamping of the same exploitative animal experiments that have wasted time and money while sacrificing ethics. To the animal research industry, this might feel like \u201csabotage\u201d, but, to the rest of us, it\u2019s long overdue common sense. <\/em>SOURCE…<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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