Nothing in the Rollins/Kennedy announcement supports plant-based diet, notes Harvard critic WASHINGTON, D.C.––Brooke Rollins, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services, on August 24, 2026 announced what they claimed were, “Sweeping new efforts to strengthen school meals by connecting more American farmers with local schools, […]
Under-the-table backroom deal frees the last of the Ridglan Farms beagles
Beagles bark, money talks, & the two Waynes whose work achieved the deal––Hsiung & Pacelle ––are left chained to the doghouse BLUE MOUNDS, Wisconsin––The decade-long campaign to close the Ridglan Farms beagles-for-research breeding facility begun by Direct Action Everywhere founder and Simple Heart blogger Wayne Hsiung in 2017 can now be called a victory, at […]
FDA commissioner Makary, critic of animal testing, gets the Trump boot
Following the Marty Makary & Pam Bondi exits, the last animal friends in the White House may be rats in the woodwork WASHINGTON D.C.––Resigning on May 12, 2026 under direct pressure from U.S. president Donald Trump, former U.S. Food & Drug Administration commissioner Marty Makary dashed with his forced exit whatever illusions anyone may still […]
New Year’s resolutions for animals, or just more political promises?
Europeans expect advances, Americans will have to defend gains, & Indian government dithers on WASHINGTON D.C.; LONDON; ROME; NEW DELHI––If political promises can be taken as New Year’s resolutions, 2026 might become an even better year for animals than was 2025. 2025 ended with a salute from Francisco Vásquez Neira, president of the international animal […]
“No more monkeys jumping on the bed!” orders CDC deputy chief of staff
End to CDC non-human primate research expected by the end of 2025 ATLANTA, Georgia––About 200 fewer macaques will be used in 2026 in U.S. federal laboratories after the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) quits keeping non-human primates toward the end of 2025. That will leave about 7,000 more non-human primates, mostly rhesus and […]
Trump & RFK Jr. play “chicken” with H5N1; fire 1,260 “disease detectives”
68 sick farmers, including one who died, may be the “sentinel chickens” for the next pandemic, but Trump administration says, “What, me worry?” WASHINGTON D.C.––Playing “chicken” with the rising risk of an H5N1 avian influenza pandemic spreading beyond six dozen farm workers to the general public, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., hours after confirmation as the […]
Trump picks RFK Jr., Gabbard, Nesvik, Patel, & Usha Vance: hope or barf?
Trump picks with best pro-animal records are in poor position to help; those with worst records will have most influence WASHINGTON D.C.––Animal advocates, depending on priority issues, on February 12 and 13, 2025 responded with both guarded hope and anxious nausea to the latest Donald Trump appointments to senior administration posts. Among the flurry […]
What NIH “indirect costs” budget cuts may mean for laboratory animals
NIH budget cuts might mean fewer animals used––or just worse care WASHINGTON D.C.; BOSTON, Massachusetts; YEMASSEE, South Carolina––With the biomedical research world focused on Donald Trump administration cuts to National Institutes of Health funding for laboratory “overhead,” a big hidden question with no obvious answers is “What does this mean for animals?” Does the […]
“Getting ducks in a row,” Trump team silences agencies about H5N1
Muzzling order comes just as news breaks of major H5N1 outbreak on Long Island duck farm AQUEBOGUE, N.Y.; WASHINGTON, D.C.–– “I look at what’s going on as this administration coming in and getting their ducks in a row,” an anonymous federal official told National Public Radio on January 22, 2025, moments after the incoming Donald […]
Hope for animals under Trump 2.0 means fight to keep past gains
Cuts to either farm subsidies or animal testing are unlikely WASHINGTON D.C.––Donald Trump, as of January 20, 2025, is back in the U.S. White House, bringing with him a 25-count legacy of having been the worst U.S. President for animals ever during his first presidency, 2017-2021. Since that 25-count “indictment” has already been widely amplified […]