EPA Launches Lab Animal Adoption Amid Trump Research Cuts

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under President Trump’s administration in 2025, has initiated a program to put laboratory animals such as rats and zebrafish up for adoption due to significant cuts in its research division. This move follows plans to drastically reduce the EPA's Office of Research and Development, cutting about 1,000 science positions and replacing it with a smaller unit focused on short-term, legally mandated projects, which has led to an oversupply of lab animals. The program, first launched at the EPA’s North Carolina Research Triangle complex, aims to find homes for animals previously used in toxicological testing, a practice the Trump EPA is seeking to phase out after earlier commitments to reduce and eventually end animal testing by 2035. The Biden administration had previously removed these phaseout deadlines, resulting in continued animal testing, but the Trump EPA, led by Administrator Lee Zeldin, is recommitting to curbing such experiments. The adoption initiative and research cuts have sparked criticism from groups like Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which views the reductions as a harmful abandonment of long-term scientific research, while advocacy organizations like White Coat Waste Project praise the phaseout efforts. The program and research cuts remain contentious, with legal challenges temporarily halting full implementation.