'Parade of horribles' awaits as thousands of animals become latest victims of Trump

President Donald Trump's sweeping cuts to the federal budget is putting the lives of thousands of lab animals in jeopardy.

The Trump administration has cut billions of dollars in university research funding and laid off thousands of employees at federal health agencies, and the New York Times reported that these cuts have profound consequences for the lab animals that serve as the basis for biomedical research.

“There are going to be a lot of animals that are going to end up being sacrificed — killed,” said Paul Locke, an expert in laboratory animal law at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Many of the animals are genetically customized for specific studies and dependent on trained staff to humanely care for them. Many scientists were reluctant to speak openly about their fate out of fear of backlash from animal rights activists or retaliation from the Trump administration or their employers.

“I think they’re not talking about it because it’s a situation that, for them, is just a parade of horribles,” Locke said. “If they are going to keep the animals up, it’s going to be massively expensive. If they’re going to sacrifice the animals, it’s going to cause public outrage.”

Some animal rights activists are in favor of the disruption, even if the lab animals are euthanized, because it could mean the end of federally funded animal research.

“For a lot of these animals, being euthanized before being experimented on is probably a best-case scenario,” said Justin Goodman, a senior vice president at the White Coat Waste Project.

But many researchers were devastated that they would be killed without any gain to scientific knowledge.

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“We don’t take using animals lightly,” said pulmonary toxicologist Kyle Mandler, who was among the scientists recently terminated from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Before he lost his job, Mandler was in the middle of a study on hazardous dusts produced during the manufacture of some construction materials, and about two dozen of his mice were destroyed last week, before the study could be completed and the data they provided could be collected.

“The fact that their lives and sacrifice will just be a complete waste is equal parts depressing and infuriating,” he said.

An unnamed Department of Health and Human Services official declined to answer questions about the animals' fate, but that person said changes to the research programs were part of a “broader realignment" that would fold multiple programs into the new Administration for a Healthy America.

“Staffing and operational adjustments are occurring in phases,” the statement said. “Animal care operations remain active, and H.H.S. is committed to maintaining compliance with all federal animal welfare standards throughout this transition.”