In a Feb. 5, 2026 letter sent to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary (DHHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya, the legislators wrote, “We are grateful that you are taking a critical look at wasteful government spending on unproductive animal experiments.”

Decades of funding, hundreds of dogs.

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According to the letter, NIH has funded the Wayne State project since 1991 in an effort to study heart failure and hypertension by “trying to artificially create those conditions in dogs.” Lawmakers state that “the nearly $15 million in spending…has only resulted in harming and killing hundreds of dogs over the last 34 years.”

Public records cited in the letter describe invasive surgeries, implanted devices, and dogs forced to run on treadmills while their heart rates are artificially raised. Records also show that “Wayne State’s botched surgeries have led to many dogs suffering such extreme internal injuries that their chest cavities fill with blood.” The lawmakers added in their letter, “In a cruel new twist, Wayne State is now feeding the dogs a “high fat diet” to “induce metabolic syndrome,” which can increase their risk of stroke.”

Calling for an end.

With the NIH project scheduled to expire in March 2026, lawmakers are formally requesting that funding be denied beyond that date. They argue the research “has failed to help any patients” and is “wasting public money that should be used to improve public health.” The bipartisan lawmakers who signed onto the letter include 8 Republicans and 3 Democrats.

Michigan News Source reached out to Wayne State University about the letter but they did not return our request for comment. However, testifying at a House Regulatory Reform hearing on October 3, 2025, Wayne State University’s Senior Director of the Division of Lab Animal Resources, Veterinarian, Dr. Michael Bradley, defended the program as “humane” and productive. He faced sharp questioning from legislators after admitting the school has received decades of NIH funding for their experiments. He insisted the dogs were not “forced” but “encouraged” on treadmills with positive reinforcement – a claim met with audible disbelief from committee members.