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In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, the vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) called for the firing of White House Chief Medical Advisor and Director of the NIAID Dr. Anthony Fauci over “failed” animal experimentation by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), highlighting the billions wasted on cruel projects and “illogical” studies such as attempts at creating transgender monkeys, while praising Republicans for “leading the way” on these issues.
Speaking with Breitbart News on Thursday, PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo, who has served the animal rights group for 33 years, weighed in on the current opposition to “failed” animal experiments, calling attention to the NIH’s squandering of nearly half its annual budget on such failed experiments, as well as her group’s proposed alternative methods of research.
Scientific Opposition
Guillermo began by explaining how PETA’s opposition to animal experimentation was always due to “ethical reasons,” however, in recent years, it has seen the “scientific basis” for it as well.
“There have been a number of papers published showing that animal experimentation is failing to lead to treatments for humans,” she said, “and it’s acknowledged by the National Institutes of Health and by the people who use animals.”
“But for some reason, NIH seems incapable of changing its practices,” she added.
As a result, the group has created a strategy which includes phasing out animal experiments.
“So our scientists developed what we call the ‘research modernization deal’ and it outlines the reasons for ending animal experimentation,” she said. “Using the statistics from the published studies, it offers a strategy for how we can phase it out and what can be done instead.”
“The strategy is essentially: if we know it doesn’t work, stop doing it,” she said. “And for other areas of research where we’re not sure, evaluate those fairly and stop what doesn’t work and fund what does work. It’s common sense and yet somehow NIH seems to need to have common sense put directly in front of them.”
According to Guillermo, after the European Parliament reviewed PETA’s “straightforward” strategy, it directed the European Commission to come up with a plan and timeline for phasing out animal research, as she warned the U.S. “is already going to be falling behind our European allies.”
Citing the figures, she called out the “illogical” pursuit of failed methods.
“The budget for these experiments is about $20 billion, which is so illogical,” she said, noting it is ”about half of NIH’s budget.”
“If you’ve got something that fails more than 90% of the time, and in some disease research areas it’s 100% failure — such as drugs developed using animals for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, AIDS, neurological diseases, strokes, and sepsis — and you’re spending 50% of your budget on that, that is just statistically illogical,” she added.