WCW Investigation: Records Detail Puppy Sales to NIH-Funded Labs by Nation’s Second-Largest Lab Dog Breeder

• New records obtained by White Coat Waste (WCW) show Oak Hill Genetics—now the nation’s second-largest breeder of lab dogs — shipped 1,518 dogs to laboratories in just 18 months, including numerous taxpayer-funded labs conducting invasive and deadly experiments.
• From January 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, Oak Hill shipped dogs as young as 3 months old to 44 different labs, including universities receiving millions from the National Institutes of Health for experiments that induce heart failure, strokes, cancer, obesity, diabetes, and nerve injuries in the animals.
• A total of 1,200 puppies and adult dogs were confined at Oak Hill Genetics according to its most recent federal inspection.
• Following the closures of Envigo’s and Ridglan Farms’ beagle mills, Oak Hill has emerged as one of the last large-scale breeders fueling the dog experimentation industry.
• WCW first identified Oak Hill as a major dog supplier in its landmark 2016 Spending to Death investigation exposing government dog laboratories.

White Coat Waste (WCW) has spent years exposing commercial breeders supplying dogs to taxpayer-funded laboratories — from the defunct Envigo’s abusive beagle mill to the now-shuttered Ridglan Farms, which funneled dogs into maximum pain experiments, and Marshall BioResources’ (aka Marshall Farms) sales of dogs to the NIH’s in-house deadly septic shock lab. 

With Ridglan Farms now closing, Oak Hill Genetics, based in Ewing, Illinois, has become the nation’s second-largest supplier of dogs for experimentation, behind only Marshall.

A federal inspection conducted in November 2025 documented 1,200 puppies and dogs confined at Oak Hill.

WCW first identified Oak Hill as one of the federal government’s primary dog suppliers in our landmark 2016 Spending to Death investigation, which exposed how agencies including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) purchased “research canines” from commercial breeders for painful taxpayer-funded experiments.

Now, newly obtained records from the Illinois Department of Agriculture show that between January 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026, Oak Hill shipped 1,518 hound-mix dogs — ranging from approximately three months to six years old — to 44 different laboratories across the country.

Among the recipients are labs that WCW has confirmed received dogs from Oak Hill for NIH-funded experiments, including:

The University of Utah, which has received nearly $12 million for heart experiments in which dogs have their arteries tied off, pacemakers are implanted, and the animals are subjected to electric shocks before being killed;

Vanderbilt University, whose dog experimentation program has received more than $109 million over 50 years to feed dogs high-fat, high-fructose diets to induce obesity, diabetes, and liver disease before invasive procedures and euthanasia;

Ohio State University, which has received nearly $6 million for experiments that implant pacemakers to drive dogs’ hearts to 600 beats per minute, causing heart failure before their hearts are removed; and

Washington University in St. Louis, which has received more than $1.2 million for experiments in which dogs’ laryngeal nerves are cut, stem cells are implanted, and the animals are later killed so their larynxes and muscles can be harvested.

The shipment records also show Oak Hill supplying mixed-breed hound dogs to other universities conducting NIH-funded experiments.

FOIA records obtained by WCW reveal those experiments include ones at the University of Washington, where dogs have tumor cells implanted into their prostates, at the University of Chicago, where experimenters induce severe strokes in dogs, and the University of Cincinnati, where dogs are killed so experimenters can harvest their larynxes.

Records also identify dozens of additional customers, including for-hire testing labs, medical device companies, and other universities.

Laboratory	Number of Dogs Received from Oak Hill (1/1/25–6/30/26)
Ohio State University	19
University of Utah	50
Vanderbilt University	61
Washington University in St. Louis	32
University of Washington	13
University of Chicago	24
University of Cincinnati	4
Acculab	4
AMEDD Center and School	21
American Preclinical Services	418
Animal Blood Resources Int.	41
Auris Health	1
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center	8
Boston Scientific	52
California Property Holdings	35
Care Research	5
Case Western MetroHealth	2
Case Western Reserve University	7
Charles River Laboratories	1
Covidien LP	8
Element Research Group	42
Ethicon Endo Surgery	24
Global Medical Devices	32
Henry Ford Health System	4
Houston Methodist Research Institute	9
IBEX Preclinical Research Inc.	11
Inotiv (Fort Collins)	121
Johns Hopkins University	23
Labcorp (Bedford)	23
Mayo Clinic (Arizona)	6
Medtronic Physiological Research Laboratory	16
NAMSA	16
Oregon Health & Science University	12
Pork Power Farms	165
QTest Labs	12
Synchrony Labs, LLC	100
The Veterinarians’ Blood Bank	21
UMass Chan Medical School	14
University at Buffalo	4
University of Minnesota	9
University of Southern California	6
Veranex	22
Wayne State University	2
Young Veterinary Services	18
TOTAL	1,518

Oak Hill’s ties to taxpayer-funded animal testing are nothing new.

WCW previously uncovered the breeder supplying dogs to the NIH’s in-house septic shock laboratory and for painful experiments at the Richmond and Cleveland VA medical centers—all government dog labs that were ultimately shut down following WCW investigations and campaigns.

A federal spending database also shows Oak Hill received more than $1 million in direct taxpayer funding from the NIH, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Defense, and VA.

WCW’s newest investigation exposes where the dogs and taxpayer dollars are going. But exposure is only half the battle. WCW is working to cut off the taxpayer funding that fuels both the laboratories and the commercial breeders supplying them.

Recently, we worked with Congress to include language slashing funding for dog and cat laboratories in the Fiscal Year 2027 NIH spending bill, which has passed the House Appropriations Committee and now heads to the House floor. WCW-backed measures to curb dog testing were also included in pending bills to fund the USDA, Environmental Protection Agency, and Food and Drug Administration.

The Farm Bill also includes WCW-backed provisions, led by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and cosponsored by Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Scott Perry (R-PA), and Dina Titus (D-NV), to defund maximum pain experiments on dogs and cats.

Until taxpayers stop footing the bill, WCW will keep following the money — and the dogs.