MOTION-SICK KITTENS: DOGE may cut government grants to projects like these 10 university animal experiments
The Trump administration has proposed funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which would impact research grants to universities.
Campus Reform compiled a list of 10 bizarre university animal studies funded by the NIH.
As the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashes outrageous government spending, the Trump administration has proposed funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which would impact research grants to universities.
Campus Reform looked at NIH grants to university research projects using NIH’s RePORTER and USAspending.gov and found 10 questionable animal experiments being conducted by university researchers.
From hamsters on steroids to rats on their periods, here are 10 examples of crazy science being funded the federal government:
1. Fauci’s Beagles
The NIH and Dr. Anthony Fauci granted researchers at the University of Georgia $370,954 and researchers at Ohio State University $166,973 to infect dozens of healthy beagles with parasites to test an experimental drug on them.
The dogs were reportedly “vocalizing in pain” and were either killed or “recycled” for use in other studies after the experiments, according to White Coat Waste Project.
2. Roided out Hamsters
Northeastern University researchers have spent more than $2.84 million to study fighting hamsters.
The researchers inject steroids into the brains of hundreds of hamsters, pitted them against non-drugged hamsters, and force them to fight in videotaped events.
3. Cat Constipation
University of Pittsburgh researchers spent $10.9 million to insert marbles into the rectums of cats and then shock the animals until they defecated.
The cats were reportedly subjected to electric shocks “up to 10 minutes at a time, before having their spinal cords severed to paralyze their lower bodies.”
One cat “had to endure 11 minutes of relentless shocks just to expel four marbles.”
4. Gambling Monkeys
Johns Hopkins University researchers spent over $2.4 million studying monkeys gambling.
The study found that when monkeys were faced with token-based gambling decisions, they showed “strong risk seeking” behavior and went for bigger gambles.
5. Motion-Sick Kittens
University of Pittsburgh researchers spent $1,513,299 to use kittens in a study to analyze motion sickness.
The researchers made the “cats nauseous by exposing them to bright lights and electric shocks and spinning them hundreds of times on a hydraulic table for motion sickness experiments,” according to White Coat Waste Project.
Some of the kittens, just four to six months old, “had holes drilled into their skulls to restrain their heads during the experiment.”
6. Rats on Cocaine
New York University researchers used $419,470 to “determine if lonely rats seek cocaine more than happy rats,” according to one report.
Four weeks and hundreds of thousands of dollars later, researchers concluded that rats who were hungry and lonely were more likely to seek drugs.
7. Binge-drinking Monkeys
A researcher at Oregon Health and Science University has been granted over $18 million to study monkeys given excessive amounts of alcohol.
This funding went to 39 studies from 2007 to 2025.
In one of the studies, researchers gave monkeys eight to 16 drinks per day to “address how chronic drinking may increase the morbidity of COVID-19.”
8. Caffeinated Mice
A researcher at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis has received over $3.9 million in grants to study the effects of mice binge-drinking alcohol.
One of the studies tested the effects of the “combination of highly caffeinated ‘energy drinks’ with alcohol” on the brains of mice.
9. COVID Cats
Since 2022, Cornell University and the University of Illinois have spent over $2.2 million to study if cats can get and transmit COVID.
The University of Illinois received $1.9 million and Cornell University received $302,896.
Scientists reportedly infected “perfectly healthy cats with COVID-19, watch[ed] them suffer through infection for different lengths of time, and then kill them in groups of four.”
10. Drugged Rats on their Periods
University of Minnesota researchers spent $87,944 to study the “role of the estrous cycle and nucleus accumbens signaling on incubation of oxycodone craving in female rats.”
The study investigated whether female rats experience stronger drug cravings during their reproductive cycles.
