In a painful sign of disregard for both creation and the dignity of scientific vocation, the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to federal research funding have not only displaced countless scientists but also condemned hundreds of laboratory animals to death — a loss that should deeply trouble any Catholic conscience.
On April 1, the blow arrived at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Morgantown, West Virginia. Employees were informed they were terminated and barred from the premises — leaving over 900 lab animals behind. According to two former employees, about two-thirds were relocated to university labs, but “the remaining 300 animals… were euthanized last week” (The New York Times, April 2025).
From a Catholic standpoint, this raises grave ethical concerns. Animals, though not possessing immortal souls, are part of God’s creation, entrusted to human stewardship — not domination. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly” (CCC 2418). Yet here, death came not from necessity but from negligence, policy haste, and disregard for long-standing scientific work.
These terminations reflect a broader federal push that has “taken aim at the American research enterprise, firing scores of federal scientists, rescinding active research grants and proposing drastic cuts” (NYT). Entire studies were abandoned mid-course. “The fact that their lives and sacrifice will just be a complete waste is equal parts depressing and infuriating,” said Kyle Mandler, a terminated toxicologist whose study on hazardous dusts was scrapped, along with two dozen mice euthanized before data could be collected.
As Catholics, we believe in the sacredness of vocation — and that includes the calling of researchers who serve the common good through discovery and public health. To discard their labor and God’s creatures with equal contempt is not governance — it is sin.
Even those fighting for alternative, non-animal methods caution against this sudden and chaotic shift. “We want to drive ourselves out of this work,” said Naomi Charalambakis of Americans for Medical Progress. “But we’re not quite there yet.” Abrupt defunding doesn’t speed progress — it destroys the foundation it depends upon.
Paul Locke, a laboratory animal law expert at Johns Hopkins, warns: “There are going to be a lot of animals that are going to end up being sacrificed — killed.” He added, “I don’t think it’s OK to cull millions of animals from research. I don’t think that’s societally acceptable. I don’t think it’s scientifically acceptable.”
Catholics must agree — it is not morally acceptable either.
While some animal rights activists cheer the outcome as a “best-case scenario” (NYT), the Church cannot rejoice in death, whether human or animal, especially when it results from bureaucratic carelessness rather than deliberate moral discernment.
At the heart of this crisis lies a deeper spiritual ailment: utilitarianism. When budgetary lines override both moral responsibility and the dignity of creation, we are left not with justice, but with cruelty masked as cost-saving.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, now restructuring under the new “Administration for a Healthy America,” issued a vague assurance that “animal care operations remain active” and that “H.H.S. is committed to maintaining compliance with all federal animal welfare standards.” But as Catholic citizens, we must ask: Is compliance enough when creatures are dying in silence, and when the humans charged with their care are discarded just as easily?
Pope Francis, in Laudato Si’, reminds us: “Every act of cruelty towards any creature is ‘contrary to human dignity.’” (LS 92). He warns against a throwaway culture where both people and animals become expendable in the name of progress. This is not the stewardship God calls us to — this is desecration.
Let this moment be a wake-up call. The faithful must demand that transitions away from animal research be humane, deliberate, and morally coherent. We must support legislation and leadership that respect both scientific integrity and God’s creation.
Our nation cannot be great if it forgets mercy. And there is no mercy in silencing the suffering of creation behind locked laboratory doors.
