A disturbing new investigation by nonprofit watchdog White Coat Waste (WCW) has exposed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for a University of Chicago lab that deliberately inflicts devastating brain injuries on dogs before killing them, all with taxpayer dollars. Documents obtained by WCW through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal that the lab’s own records admit the animals are “at risk of significant suffering.”

The horrific details laid out in the report reveal that dogs are subjected to invasive imaging, repeated blood draws, and surgical procedures in which researchers insert coils into their arteries to deliberately induce massive strokes. After regaining consciousness, they are forced through neurological tests while suffering severe brain damage, and once the data is collected, every dog is killed, discarded like broken lab equipment once their suffering has served its purpose.

Shockingly, these experiments are allegedly intended to study a stroke treatment that has already been proven safe and effective in human clinical trials, making the suffering not only cruel but scientifically unnecessary.

According to WCW, the NIH has wasted $4.9 million on this dog stroke lab. In June 2025, the project received another $596,000 in new funding and is scheduled to receive three more years of support unless federal agencies intervene. The cruelty is also being propped up by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Portions of two NSF grants totaling $40.5 million have supported the lab, including an active $24.7 million grant that runs through August 2026.

As reported by WAN, last summer NIH Deputy Director Nicole Kleinstreuer stated the agency would “phase out” testing on dogs and cats and called it “unconscionable.” However, the NIH continues to fund labs, including the one at University of Chicago, as well as testing on other species, including rabbits, as WAN revealed in an October exclusive. 

“Nearly seventy million American homes count dogs as family, and no taxpayer should be forced to pay for pets to be abused in barbaric and wasteful experiments. Yet, White Coat Waste’s disturbing new investigation uncovered documents detailing how a University of Chicago lab is inducing the ‘most severe stroke’ in dozens of dogs using millions in taxpayer dollars from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. Despite other agencies canceling and defunding painful tests on pets exposed by White Coat Waste, NIH officials continue to double down on deadly dog labs, falsely claim the problem ‘predates’ them, and break their promise to phase them out,” Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President, Advocacy and Public Policy for White Coat Waste, told WAN. “White Coat Waste is leading the charge to hold the government accountable for torturing pets with our tax dollars. The solution is simple: Stop the money. Stop the madness!”

WCW is leading efforts to end federal funding for dog and cat experimentation altogether. The organization has already secured major wins, including pushing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to end dog, cat, and primate testing, pressuring the U.S. Navy to ban dog and cat experiments, defunding the Department of Defense’s painful dog and cat labs, and helping shutter animal labs at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

As previously reported by WAN, WCW is working with Congress to pass the bipartisan Preventing Animal Abuse and Waste (PAAW) Act, which would permanently eliminate NIH funding for dog and cat testing.

TAKE ACTION! Please support the PAAW Act and help stop the NIH from funding cruel experiments on dogs and cats in the U.S. and worldwide by signing WCW’s petition HERE!