WASHINGTON — China-led drug tests on hundreds of beagle puppies won’t be conducted anymore on the US taxpayers’ dime, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) confirmed to The Post on Thursday — but the Defense Department still hasn’t copped to partially funding the research deemed “cruel” by lawmakers and a watchdog group.
A $124,200 contract between the NIH and the Beijing-based biotech firm Pharmaron to test pharmaceuticals on the pooches from Sept. 1, 2023, to May 31, 2025, is not being renewed, according to a spokesperson with the public health agency’s Office of Extramural Research.
The taxpayer watchdog White Coat Waste Project unearthed the contract via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, with documents showing up to 300 beagles — as well as rats and mice — were being tested per week to help understand and treat neurological disorders.
The experiments abided by the Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Policy on Laboratory — but White Coat Waste pointed to the contract discussing how the pups, some as young as eight months, were “reused” and then “euthanized” if they suffered organ dysfunction, were infected or became weak.
A Defense Department spokesperson previously claimed there was no “evidence” of the Pentagon contributing taxpayer dollars to the research.
“There is no evidence we can find that indicates the Department of Defense funds any related animal research,” a spokesperson said of the experiments in January 2025.
But the contract stated the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences “received a DoD award to specifically fund animal studies delineated in this award.”
Reps for the Defense Department did not respond to requests for comment.
White Coat Waste uncovered the contract as part of an investigation into more than two dozen Chinese labs that had received $2 million-plus in taxpayer funding for animal testing and other experiments.
“We’re thrilled that less than 48 hours after the US Navy banned all dog and cat tests following a White Coat Waste campaign, Trump’s NIH is now cutting wasteful dog experiments we unearthed in a taxpayer-funded Chinese lab,” said White Coat Waste senior vice president Justin Goodman.
“We’re proud of our hard-fought campaign that notched this victory and applaud NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and President Trump for kicking taxpayer-funded canine cruelty in China to the doghouse of history.”
Staten Island GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) have been among the lawmakers opposing taxpayer-funded animal testing and other potentially risky research in countries of concern, such as China.
Pharmaron is one of several “companies of concern” that had been blacklisted due to their Chinese Communist Party ties from doing official business with US firms, per legislation that passed the House last Congress but was never taken up in the Senate.
The Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General audited the Pentagon’s funding for overseas gain-of-function research last year and uncovered collaborations with the companies: Pharmaron, WuXi AppTec and Genscript Inc.
