![\"Trump](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.animals24-7.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picsart_25-03-05_21-25-24-838-e1741238775431.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 WASHINGTON D.C.\u2013\u2013<\/strong>U.S. president Donald Trump made just two mentions of animal issues in his March 4,\u00a0 2025 address to Congress.<\/p>\n Trump renamed the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge near Galveston Bay in Texas after 12-year-old rape\/murder victim Jocelyn Nungaray,\u00a0 but did not change any of the refuge policies.<\/p>\n Trump also listed \u201c$8 million for making mice transgender\u201d as an example of alleged wasteful biomedical research funding axed by the Department of Governmental Efficiency under multi-billionaire Elon Musk.<\/p>\n While the allegation about \u201cmaking mice transgender\u201d brought giggles and global ridicule,\u00a0 as many listeners mis-assumed that Trump meant experiments using transgenic mice,\u00a0 he did not.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Renaming the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in honor of Jocelyn Nungaray was the more questionable Trump action,\u00a0 in view of his stated reason why:<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing I have learned about Jocelyn is that she loved animals so much,\u201d \u00a0Trump declared. \u201cShe loved nature.\u201d<\/p>\n The 34,000-acre Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 is used chiefly by hunters to shoot geese,\u00a0 blue-and green-winged teal, mottled duck, \u00a0gadwall, \u00a0pintail and shoveler.<\/p>\n Altogether,\u00a0 13,600 acres\u2013\u201340% of the refuge\u2013\u2013are open to hunting.\u00a0 The rest is mostly inaccessible marsh.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Though renaming a facility used mostly for killing waterfowl after a girl who \u201cloved animals so much\u201d is bizarre,\u00a0 there never actually was much reason for the newly dubbed Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge to have been called the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.<\/p>\n The town of Anahuac is 16 miles away.<\/p>\n Further,\u00a0 contrary to common supposition,\u00a0 the name Anahuac has nothing to do with the Atakapa,\u00a0 the Native American tribe found in the area in 1721 by French explorer Jean Baptiste de La Harpe.<\/p>\n According to the official refuge history,\u00a0 \u201cGeneral Manuel de Mier y Ter\u00e1n, commanding officer of the Mexican states of Coahuila and Texas, officially named the town Anahuac in January 1831, \u00a0after the ancient capital of the Aztecs,\u201d\u00a0 more than 1,000 miles south.<\/p>\n The Aztec empire never extended within 500 miles of Galveston Bay.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Now about the mice.<\/p>\n Amid the global storm of news media and social media ridicule following Trump\u2019s remark about \u201c$8 million for making mice transgender,\u201d\u00a0 White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt\u2013\u2013or someone,\u00a0 anyhow,\u00a0 posting in her capacity\u2013\u2013asserted that,\u00a0 \u201cUnder the [Joseph] Biden Administration, \u00a0the National Institutes of Health doled out millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded grants for institutions across the country to perform transgender experiments on mice.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House posting listed six specific studies,\u00a0 without mentioning how many mice may have been involved,\u00a0 or may still be involved.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In order of size of grant,\u00a0 $3,100,000 was spent on \u201cGonadal hormones as mediators of sex and gender influences in asthma.\u201d<\/p>\n $2,500,000 was allocated to \u201cReproductive Consequences of Steroid Hormone Administration.\u201d<\/p>\n $1,200,000 went to \u201cAndrogen effects on the reproductive neuroendocrine axis.\u201d<\/p>\n $735,113 funded \u201cMicrobiome mediated effects of gender affirming hormone therapy in mice.\u201d<\/p>\n $455,000 was used to develop \u201cA Mouse Model to Test the Effects of Gender-affirming Hormone Therapy on HIV Vaccine-induced Immune Responses.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally,\u00a0 $299,940 funded \u201cGender-Affirming Testosterone Therapy on Breast Cancer Risk and Treatment Outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The White House posting claimed that total spending on these six studies came to $8,290,053.<\/p>\n The actual total is $7,090,053,\u00a0 a shortfall of $1.2 million.<\/p>\n A simple explanation is that Leavitt,\u00a0 or whomever,\u00a0 double-counted \u201cAndrogen effects on the reproductive neuroendocrine axis.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether the allegation that the six studies actually had anything to do with \u201cmaking mice transgender\u201d may be up for debate.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to translations of the biomedical research jargon in the project descriptions offered by DemocraticUnderground.com,\u00a0 they were,\u00a0 again in order of size,\u00a0 quoting DemocraticUnderground.com verbatim:<\/p>\n One might also observe that five of the six studies appear to point toward reasons why a health-conscious person might avoid transgender surgery.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Be that as it may,\u00a0 the far right-leaning,\u00a0 pro-Donald Trump antivivisection society White Coat Waste Project lost little time in claiming credit for the Department of Governmental Efficiency killing the six sets of mouse experiments.<\/p>\n According to White Coat Waste Project social media postings,\u00a0 \u201cA new White Coat Waste Project analysis of federal spending uncovered over $10 million in taxpayer-funded grants currently being wasted to create transgender mice, rats, and monkeys in university labs.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the tax-funded experiments, \u00a0mice, \u00a0rats, \u00a0and large animals underwent invasive surgeries and hormone therapies to mimic gender transitions in painful and deadly experiments.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe transgender animal experiments were paid for in part by millions in taxpayer-funded [diversity,\u00a0 equity,\u00a0 and inclusion] grants,\u201d\u00a0 the White Coat Waste Project continued.<\/p>\n \u201cThe experiments were approved and funded by the National Institutes of Health and USDA, and millions more are being funneled from federal grants to similar projects.<\/p>\n \u201cFollowing White Coat Waste Project\u2019s expos\u00e9, lawmakers immediately called for the experiments to be defunded by the Department of Governmental Efficiency.<\/p>\n \u201cImmediately following White Coat Waste Project\u2019s revelations, \u00a0Department of Government Efficiency Senate Caucus chair Joni Ernst,\u201d\u00a0 a Republican from Iowa,\u00a0 \u201cand Representatives Nancy Mace and Paul Gosar,\u201d\u00a0 Republicans from South Carolina and Arizona,\u00a0 respectively, \u00a0\u201ccalled for these projects to be defunded.\u201d<\/p>\nThe White House\/DOGE numbers on alleged transgender mice don\u2019t add up<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nJocelyn Nungaray \u201cloved animals,\u201d\u00a0 but did she love hunters shooting them?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThere was reason to rename the refuge<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cTransgender experiments on mice\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nSix specific studies<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nDouble-counted $1.2 million<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nTranslated into English<\/h2>\n
\n
<\/a><\/p>\nWhite Coat Waste Project claims credit<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cCalled for these projects to be defunded\u201d<\/h2>\n