GOP senator: Kill federal waste, not rabbits

Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) slammed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Wednesday for spending money on a project that included massages for rabbits.

{mosads}Coats said the agency gave $387,000 to Ohio State University for a project that used the rabbits to study if massages could help reduce pain from exercise.

“Does NIH need to fund a study to determine the benefits of massage by using 18 white rabbits from New Zealand that receive 30-minute massages four times a day … to prove out the fact that a massage helps get rid of some of these aches and pains that come from strenuous exercise?” the Indiana Republican asked from the Senate floor.

His remarks are part of a weekly “Waste of the Week” speech that he uses to highlight what he considers misused federal funds. With his remarks, Coats follows the tradition of former Sen. Tom Coburn. The Oklahoma Republican published an annual “Wastebook,” highlighting questionable government spending.

Coats said that while the spending “is a small thing,” it underscores how “we continue to … waste taxpayer money on frivolous things.”

The Indiana Republican said that the rabbits were killed once the project was finished. He suggested that in the future we should instead kill “taxpayer-funded government waste.”

“I hate to say this … but after the project was over, they were euthanized, put to rest,” he said. “It’s my hope going forward that instead of killing rabbits, we can kill taxpayer funded government waste like this project.”