Washington, DC — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved a program for putting its laboratory animals up for adoption, according to internal documents obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The move reflects EPA’s drastic planned cutbacks in toxicological and other basic research work.

There are approximately 20,000 animals in EPA labs, including rabbits, mice, and rats, which are primarily used to gauge the safety of environmental pollutants. The adoption program, which is debuting at EPA’s Research Triangle complex in North Carolina, is now offering zebrafish and rats for private adoption.

EPA is in the process of amputating its science arm, called the Office of Research & Development (ORD), and replacing it with a much smaller Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions, bearing the acronym OASES. This new entity would focus on shorter-term projects limited to “statutorily required functions” as opposed to long-term basic research, such as experiments looking into the effects of chemicals, per a fact sheet emailed to ORD employees.

Altogether, this plan would result in the elimination of more than 1,000 scientist positions, approximately three-quarters of total ORD staffing. This plan and other planned reductions in EPA staffing are currently on hold due to the issuance of a preliminary federal court injunction.

“EPA is abandoning its status as a premier scientific organization,” stated PEER Science Policy Director Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney formally with EPA. “Scientific research is vital to EPA’s core mission of protecting public health and the environment, but that mission is quickly eroding.”

PEER points out that the liquidation of EPA research will –

• Make EPA even more dependent on research from chemical companies, which is often framed to mask, rather than identify, potential health and environmental risks;
• Render the agency far less capable of evaluating the toxicological effect of chemicals, especially complex chemicals with several thousand variations, such as PFAS; and
• Jettison research which now relies on lab animals to understand the long-term effects of pollutants, such as particulate matter.

During Trump’s first term, EPA announced a plan to reduce animal testing by 30% in 2025 and end it altogether by 2035. However, those deadlines were dropped by Biden’s EPA and the agency now says it will not be bound by any time limits and is following “the best available science.”

“EPA is undergoing an ill-advised scientific self-lobotomy,” added Bennett. “Instead of developing a strategic plan for meeting its scientific needs, Trump’s EPA has decided to largely abandon scientific research except when it is specifically mandated by law, thus embracing some short-term savings to its long-term detriment.”

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