Cute Photos
How small is the world’s smallest horse and other tiny horses facts you need to know
Mon Dec 25
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ThumbelinaThis dwarf miniature horse was 17 inches tall and weighed 57 lbs. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri and died in 2018.
phase out all of their monkey research
Sun Nov 25
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is applauding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) decision to phase out all research on monkeys. The medical ethics group is now urging the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to follow the CDC’s lead and end experiments on monkeys.
“Scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been told to phase out all of their monkey research,” according to an article published in the journal Science on Nov. 21, 2025.
“This move is historic. For the first time, a U.S. agency is choosing modern, human-relevant science over a failed system of monkey experiments,” says Janine McCarthy, MPH, acting director of research policy for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. “Now, the CDC should use that funding to transition to human-relevant research and to ensure that these monkeys are sent to sanctuaries for the remainder of their lives.”
McCarthy added, “The CDC just sent a message to the entire biomedical establishment: The era of monkey experimentation is over.”
The CDC’s decision comes as the public health risks of monkey experimentation have become impossible to ignore. Over the past two decades, at least 15 monkey escapes from U.S. research facilities or transport have been publicly reported, each posing potential zoonotic disease risks to laboratory workers, first responders, transport personnel, and surrounding communities.
Beyond the safety risks, the scientific limitations of monkey research have been well documented. Nearly 92% of drugs that show promise in animal testing—often involving primates—fail when they enter human trials because they don’t translate to human safety or efficacy.
While both the NIH and the FDA have announced commitments to reducing their reliance on animal research, each continues to conduct experiments on monkeys. The Physicians Committee is calling on both agencies to accelerate the transition to modern, human-based methods such as organoids, organ chips, and other advanced technologies that better model human biology and disease.
The Physicians Committee also emphasized the need for dedicated federal funding to ensure the safe and humane placement of the approximately 200 macaques currently housed in CDC facilities into accredited sanctuaries. Sanctuary placement will be essential to completing the transition away from primate research responsibly and transparently.
A Physicians Committee/Morning Consult survey found that the vast majority favoring phasing out animal experiments in favor or other human-relevant research methods.
Equine scientists believe they have demonstrated a much higher degree of intelligence in horses than previously assumed.
Mon Nov 25
The old English proverb “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink” has been used since the 16th century to describe the difficulty of getting someone to act in their own best interests.
Now, research by equine scientists suggests the use of this phrase has been inadvertently maligning horses for centuries.
Horses have the ability to think and plan ahead and are far more intelligent than scientists previously thought, according to a Nottingham Trent University study that analysed the animal’s responses to a reward-based game.
The horses cannily adapted their approach to the game to get the most treats – while making the least effort.
“Previously, research has suggested that horses simply respond to stimuli in the moment, they don’t proactively look ahead, think ahead and plan their actions – whereas our study shows that they do have an awareness of the consequences and outcomes of their actions,” said the lead researcher, Louise Evans.
The three-stage game involved 20 horses, who were initially rewarded with a treat merely for touching a piece of card with their noses. Then, in the second stage, researchers started switching on a “stop light”. The horses were only given a snack if they touched the card while the stop light was off.
