The House Appropriations Committee has included language in the FY26 NIH spending bill that puts Dr. Anthony Fauci’s infamous “Monkey Island” under intense scrutiny.
The move comes after years of investigations by White Coat Waste Project (WCW) and coverage by The Gateway Pundit, which has exposed the secretive South Carolina primate colony as a multi-million-dollar industry involving horrific experiments on thousands of monkeys.
In 2021, White Coat Waste, a watchdog organization working to end cruel and unnecessary taxpayer-funded animal experimentation, exposed how Monkey Island confines over 3,300 primates who are bred and then shipped to labs for deadly and horrific “maximum pain” research.
Page 133 of the bill draft expresses concern over the Morgan Island rhesus macaque breeding colony, which is supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), formerly led by Dr. Fauci, and utilized by other NIH institutes.
The text notes that the more than 3,000 NIAID-owned rhesus monkeys on the island are considered an invasive species posing health and environmental risks. It commends the NIH’s efforts to advance human-focused research and reduce animal use, urging the agency to assess whether breeding primates on the island remains scientifically necessary.
That assessment must be included in NIH’s fiscal year congressional justification.
In 2024, over 3,700 monkeys were confined on the island. WCW’s analysis shows this is a ten-year high.
WCW worked closely with House Republicans to insert this provision into the bill, marking a potential turning point in defunding the operation. The current contract to manage Monkey Island, held by Alpha Genesis, is valued at $26.9 million and runs through September 2028, though it’s renewed and renegotiated annually.
In a statement to TGP about the spending bill, WCW said:
“For years, White Coat Waste’s investigations and lawsuits have exposed how Fauci’s taxpayer-funded Monkey Island ships hundreds of young primates annually to gruesome deaths in the government’s most painful experiments. Contracts, videos, other documents WCW has obtained through the Freedom of Information Act detail how at least 500 two-year-old monkeys each year are torn from the island and sent to NIH and Department of Defense labs where they have holes drilled into their skulls, are injected with viruses like Ebola and COVID, and are forced to endure seizures and severe hemorrhaging without any pain relief. We’re thrilled that following White Coat Waste’s investigations, campaigning, and lobbying, the NIH’s Congressional funding panel is finally putting Fauci’s secretive and dangerous multi-million-dollar Monkey Island under the microscope. This wasteful pet project is exactly the kind of monkey business Congress should cut to save animals and taxpayer dollars from abuse by government animal experimenters.”
In March, the NIH awarded an additional $4.1 million under this contract, as previously reported by The Gateway Pundit.
ATTN DOGE: NIH Renews Massive Funding for Fauci’s Infamously Cruel Monkey Island
To date, managing the island has cost taxpayers over $66 million when adjusted for inflation.
The primates from the island have been used for testing related to AIDS, polio, and even bioterrorism. Only researchers and officials are permitted on the secretive island, which is located at 32.4774º N and 80.5195ºW. The public is banned from entering.
An estimated 500 to 600 monkeys are taken from the island each year and sent to NIH and other government labs, where they’re infected with viruses, mutilated, and killed.
Criticism of the island’s wasteful spending has included DOGE Senate Caucus Chair Sen. Joni Ernst, who blasted it in a December 2024 X thread, calling it “Dr. Fauci’s funky monkey island” and noting that since 1979, Fauci’s NIH division has maintained the site, which houses 3,379 monkeys for taxpayer-funded experiments.
Finally, we get to Dr. Fauci’s funky monkey island.
Since 1979, Dr. Fauci’s @NIH division has maintained an island that currently houses 3,379 monkeys for use in taxpayer-funded experiments.
Managing the island has cost more than $66 million to date (adjusted for inflation).
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) December 14, 2024
Sen. Rand Paul has called out the project in his annual Festivus report, highlighting that 3,500 primates are bred and confined there, with hundreds shipped annually to federal labs for painful tests involving Ebola, MERS, and other diseases—often without pain relief—before being killed, even if healthy.
Rep. Nancy Mace has also joined these lawmakers in condemning the NIH’s practices.
As the bill heads to a full House vote after the committee markup, advocates hope this signals the end of Fauci’s legacy project. With mounting pressure from lawmakers and watchdogs, NIH may finally be forced to justify, or shutter, this abusive and extravagant use of taxpayer dollars.
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