Video: Edward James Olmos Calls on Congress to Stop ‘Deranged’ Funding of Overseas Animal Testing

For Immediate Release:
November 18, 2024

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Washington –

“It’s a travesty”—that’s how actor Edward James Olmos describes the federal government’s waste of billions of taxpayer dollars funding experiments on animals in foreign laboratories. The Battlestar Galactica and Mayans M.C. star appears in a poignant new video from PETA that’s currently being sent to members of Congress nationwide, calling on them to co-sponsor the bipartisan Cease Animal Research Grants Overseas (CARGO) Act (HR 4757), which would ban the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from funding animal torment in other countries.

Between 2011 and 2021, NIH gave $2.2 billion in taxpayer funding to foreign laboratories in South America, Europe, Asia, and Canada to use animals in pointless and cruel experiments. The agency does not require foreign organizations that receive American money to comply with local animal protection laws or adhere to all NIH requirements for U.S. animal laboratories. NIH does not even audit most foreign laboratories. This has led to fraud, animal abuse, and research misconduct.

For example, Colombia-based Caucaseco Scientific Research Center was shut down last year after a PETA investigation revealed that experimenters confined monkeys in filthy conditions, left them to die from their infected wounds, and forced mice into cannibalism—among other violations of animal care guidelines and local laws—all while collecting more than $17 million of U.S. taxpayers’ money without producing the effective malaria vaccine for humans they were supposed to develop.

monkeys at Caucaseco Scientific Research Center in Colombia — Monkeys kept in filthy, makeshift cages at the Colombia-based Caucaseco Scientific Research Center, which received millions of dollars in American tax money. Image obtained through public records law by PETA.

“In foreign laboratories such as Caucaseco, experimenters are free to abuse, mutilate, and kill animals on the American taxpayer’s dime with no oversight,” says Olmos. “That’s why PETA and I are calling on Congress to co-sponsor and pass the CARGO Act to stop funneling money into these cruel operations.”

“Shelling out billions to fund animal torment and misery in overseas laboratories isn’t just wasteful, it’s unacceptable,” says PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “PETA encourages everyone to tell their representatives to stop this egregious misuse of tax dollars and co-sponsor the CARGO Act.”

The CARGO Act was introduced by Reps. Dina Titus (D-Nev.-01) and Troy Nelhs (R-Texas-18). Twenty-two other members of Congress—11 Democrats and 11 Republicans—have since signed on as co-sponsors.

Note: PETA supports animal rights, opposes all forms of animal exploitation, and educates the public on those issues. PETA does not directly or indirectly participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office or any political party.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.