A conservative watchdog group is intensifying its campaign with Republican allies in Washington to choke off taxpayer dollars flowing to what it calls grotesque and unnecessary animal experiments at the National Science Foundation (NSF).
According to The Gateway Pundit, the White Coat Waste Project (WCW) is partnering with GOP lawmakers and the Trump administration to target the NSFs roughly $9 billion budget, which has bankrolled a series of increasingly bizarre and painful animal studies. These projects, exposed by WCW, include poisoning puppies with experimental drugs, making cats obese, creating transgender lab mice, forcing primates to play Plinko, and drilling into monkeys skulls with mad scientists in Iran.
For fiscal conservatives and animal welfare advocates alike, the NSF has become a symbol of bloated government and reckless spending that offends both moral sensibilities and basic budget discipline.
WCW, a watchdog organization dedicated to dismantling the taxpayer-funded animal testing industry, has for years pressed Congress to defund the NSFs most abusive programs. Its latest effort gained traction on Tuesday when Rep. Nancy Mace, one of WCWs most outspoken allies, introduced an amendment aimed squarely at stopping the agency from tormenting household pets in the name of science.
The measure would prohibit the use of NSF funds for any research that inflicts pain or distress on domestic cats and dogs, drawing a clear moral line where bureaucrats and grant-makers have refused to do so.
The proposed amendment to Division A of the Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026, is blunt in its language. None of the funds made available in this division may be used by the National Science Foundation to conduct, or otherwise support, research causing pain or distress to domestic cats or domestic dogs.
For Republicans who have long argued that Washington is addicted to wasteful and inhumane spending, the amendment represents a practical step toward restoring both fiscal sanity and basic decency in federal research policy.
Rep. Mace has already notched a significant victory on this front, having previously worked with WCW to cut funding for the militarys painful experiments on pets. That effort was folded into the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act that President Trump signed into law last month, underscoring how a conservative, America First approach can rein in the permanent bureaucracys worst excesses.
The success of that reform has emboldened WCW and its allies to push further, using the appropriations process to force accountability on agencies that have long operated with little public scrutiny.
WCW investigations have uncovered a litany of NSF-backed abuses that would shock most taxpayers who assume their money supports legitimate science. Among the most disturbing examples are projects in which kittens are bred, constantly overfed to make them obese, and then injected with weight-loss drugs to test pharmaceutical products.
The group has also revealed that the NSF has funded transgender animal experiments, a practice that dovetails with broader left-wing gender ideology but has little to do with core scientific priorities or the national interest.
As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, one set of NSF-supported projects involved experiments where female mice were given testosterone and other hormones to mimic transgender children on puberty blockers, in order to study how such treatments affect injuries to the Achilles tendon. These tests often include altering rat genitals or force-feeding cross-sex hormones to young mice, raising serious ethical questions about whether progressive social agendas are being smuggled into federally funded research under the guise of science.
For many conservatives, this is yet another example of how cultural radicalism and government waste go hand in hand.
Other NSF-funded projects exposed by WCW include injecting experimental drugs into puppies eyes and deliberately making cats obese for testing at Auburn University. In addition, the NSF has been linked to sourcing beagle puppies from Ridglan Farms, a notorious puppy mill currently under investigation for felony animal cruelty, to be used in drug experiments.
These revelations have fueled growing outrage among lawmakers who see no justification for forcing taxpayers to underwrite cruelty that would be illegal in many private settings.
Sen. Joni Ernst has been a leading voice in the Senate in exposing what she has called NSF insanity, highlighting absurd projects that have even included putting shrimp on a treadmill. Her efforts align with a broader conservative push to demand that federal agencies justify every dollar they spend, rather than treating taxpayers as an endless ATM for academic curiosities.
Sen. Rand Paul has joined that effort, using his 2025 Festivus Report to spotlight millions of taxpayer dollars wasted on ridiculous and cruel experimentation.
That report detailed, among other projects, a $14.6 million initiative, funded in part by NSF money, to drill holes in monkeys skulls and have them play a Plinko-style game. In a recent Fox Business interview, Sen. Paul went so far as to say the NSF should be entirely shut down because of its reckless spending habits, a position that resonates with many on the right who believe the federal research complex has grown far beyond its legitimate constitutional role.
His critique underscores a growing sentiment that agencies like the NSF are not merely inefficient, but actively harmful when they bankroll unethical and ideologically driven experiments.
Justin Goodman, WCWs Senior Vice President, captured the stakes in a statement provided to The Gateway Pundit. The $9 billion National Science Foundation is the poster child for stupid spending. For years, White Coat Waste investigations and collaborations with waste warriors like Senator Rand Paul and DOGE Senate Caucus Chair Joni Ernsthave exposed how the NSF squanders taxpayer dollars on absurd animal tests, including poisoning puppies with experimental drugs, making cats obese, creating transgender lab mice, forcing primates to play Plinko, and drilling into monkeys skulls with mad scientists in Iran.
Despite Congress ignoring President Trumps commonsense call to cut the bloated NSF, well continue to work with the Administration and lawmakers to slash the agencys wasteful spending on animal experiments.
Ending the NSFs cruel testing regime would build on a series of historic wins for animals and taxpayers achieved under the Trump administration. Those victories include ending Department of Veterans Affairs and Pentagon testing on dogs and cats, closing Environmental Protection Agency animal labs, and retiring the agencys lab rabbits, all of which reflect a governing philosophy that respects both life and limited government.
As WCW and its Republican partners press forward, the debate over NSF funding is becoming a test case for whether Washington is willing to curb its own excesses and put American values ahead of bureaucratic convenience and ideological experimentation.
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