Rep. Nancy Mace is pushing new federal legislation that would shut down the pipeline of purpose-bred dogs into government and private research labs, a move backed by the same watchdog group that first exposed taxpayer-funded beagle experiments under Dr. Fauci's NIH.
The bill, called the Prohibiting Unethical Procedures on Pets in Science Act, or PUPPS Act, would make it illegal to breed, sell, acquire, or use dogs for research purposes anywhere in U.S. commerce. It would also bar the federal government from issuing or renewing licenses that authorize those activities, and it would strip existing licenses from anyone caught violating the ban. Breitbart News first reported the bill's introduction.
Mace, a Republican from North Carolina, framed the legislation in blunt terms.
"Dogs aren't lab equipment. They're family. Breeding puppies into a life of pain just to stock government research labs isn't science. It's barbaric."
The bill arrives alongside fresh findings from the White Coat Waste Project, the taxpayer watchdog group that first uncovered what became known as the "BeagleGate" scandal, a series of revelations about NIH-funded experiments in which beagle puppies were subjected to parasitic infections, debarking procedures, and other painful protocols paid for with federal dollars.
White Coat Waste's latest investigation zeroed in on Oak Hill Genetics, a company that breeds and sells dogs for experimentation. The group found that Oak Hill sent more than 1,500 dogs to 44 different labs across the country over an 18-month period. Some of those labs, the investigation found, still receive funding from the National Institutes of Health.
The PUPPS Act targets every link in that supply chain. Under the bill's text, it would be unlawful for any person "to breed a dog for research purposes," "to engage in commercial distribution of a dog for research purposes," or "to acquire, receive, or use for research purposes a dog that such person knows, or has reason to know, was bred for such purposes." Even attempting any of those actions would violate the law.
Mace, who has built a record of legislative activism on issues ranging from banning sexual relationships between lawmakers and staff to animal welfare, cast the bill as a natural extension of her earlier work.
"We've already taken on Fauci's taxpayer-funded dog experiments and fought to get animals out of federal labs and into loving homes. Now we're shutting down the pipeline for good."
The bill's enforcement teeth are real, if capped. A first violation would carry a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per dog involved. Repeat offenders face up to $40,000 per dog. The total penalty from any single inspection, investigation, or complaint is capped at $500,000.
One provision stands apart from the penalty structure. The PUPPS Act would prohibit anyone in possession of a research dog from euthanizing it. Instead, the bill requires the individual to offer the dog for adoption, either to a private citizen or to an animal rescue organization.
Mace highlighted that adoption mandate directly. "This bill ends the breeding of dogs for research, cuts off the supply to these labs, and gives dogs already trapped behind those walls a second chance through adoption instead of euthanasia," she said. "Man's best friend belongs in a loving home, not a lab cage."
The congresswoman's outspoken public profile has made her a frequent subject of political debate. She has drawn attention for sharp statements on national security and for staking out positions that put her at odds with members of both parties.
Anthony Bellotti, founder of the White Coat Waste Project, said his organization was proud to back the legislation. Bellotti's group has spent years filing Freedom of Information Act requests and digging through federal spending records to expose what it calls wasteful and cruel taxpayer-funded animal experiments.
"White Coat Waste first uncovered Dr. Fauci's BeagleGate scandal and led conservatives to the fight against taxpayer-funded animal testing. That's why White Coat Waste is proud to support Rep. Mace's PUPPS Act to stop the despicable dog breeding operations we've exposed that supply victims to taxpayer-funded labs and to ensure more survivors go from lab dogs to lap dogs."
Bellotti added a personal note: he has adopted three pets that were bred in labs and later rescued by his organization. "The solution is simple," he said. "Stop the money. Stop the madness!"
The BeagleGate controversy that Bellotti referenced first erupted when White Coat Waste obtained documents showing that NIAID, the NIH division then led by Dr. Fauci, had spent $1.68 million on drug tests involving 44 beagle puppies at a facility in Tunisia. The experiments, conducted between October 2018 and February 2019, allegedly included locking dogs in cages with sandflies, injecting them with disease-causing parasites, and surgically removing their vocal cords. A bipartisan letter signed by 24 lawmakers called the procedures "a reprehensible misuse of taxpayer funds."
Mace led that 2021 effort. She gathered 24 bipartisan signatures on a letter demanding answers from Fauci and NIH leadership. "Using taxpayer money to de-bark, drug and kill beagle puppies is both inhumane and a disgrace to this country," Mace said at the time. The NIH acknowledged some beagle testing under contract but disputed that NIAID had directly funded the specific experiments depicted in images circulating online.
Mace's political trajectory has been marked by willingness to break from the pack. She has publicly acknowledged that some of her positions have carried political costs, but her animal-welfare work has consistently drawn bipartisan interest.
The PUPPS Act lands in a broader debate over whether federally funded animal research delivers results that justify its cost, or its cruelty. A House Oversight subcommittee hearing examined the scope of the problem and found that an estimated half a trillion dollars has been spent on animal testing since 1998 out of roughly $1 trillion in total NIH spending over that period. Nine out of ten drugs that pass animal trials fail when tested in humans, witnesses told the panel.
Elizabeth Baker of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine told the subcommittee: "We have cures for cancer in mice, we don't in humans." She argued that non-animal research alternatives remain severely underfunded while institutional inertia and financial incentives keep the old model in place.
The NIH's use of taxpayer dollars for animal-based clinical trials, involving mice, dogs, and monkeys, extends to experiments conducted both domestically and overseas, a pattern that has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers across the political spectrum. Multiple reports have documented the breadth of these programs.
The PUPPS Act is not Mace's first attempt to change the system. She previously reintroduced Violet's Law, which would require all federal labs to allow animals to be retired and adopted out when testing ends. That bill, along with Mace's broader legislative ambitions, reflects a consistent push to force accountability onto agencies that have operated with minimal public oversight for decades.
Several open questions remain. The PUPPS Act's bill number has not been publicly assigned, and it is unclear whether any co-sponsors have signed on. The current status of Violet's Law, whether it advanced, stalled, or died in committee, is also unresolved. And the specific labs still receiving NIH funding while accepting dogs from breeders like Oak Hill Genetics have not been publicly identified.
What is clear is the scale: more than 1,500 dogs from a single breeder, shipped to 44 labs, some still on the federal payroll. The PUPPS Act asks a straightforward question that Washington has dodged for years, why is the government still in the business of breeding dogs to suffer?
