(NewsNation Now) —  Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) says she hasn’t heard from Dr. Anthony Fauci or the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases about money that was used to experiment on puppies.

“I’m not wanting to just shoot off a letter and do an interview and then call it a day,” Mace said on NewsNation’s “On Balance With Leland Vittert.” “I definitely want answers from Dr. Fauci.” 

The issue centers around a report that came from a watchdog group called White Coat Waste Project. The report claims that the NIAID, under the umbrella of the National Institutes of Health, was funding experiments that included removing dogs’ vocal cords, force-feeding them an experimental drug and infecting them with parasites.

Mace, who is spearheading a group of 23 bipartisan lawmakers demanding answers, wrote a letter to Fauci on Friday, addressing her “grave concerns” about using taxpayers’ money for these experiments. 

“It’s horrific. it’s gruesome, it’s medieval,” Mace told Vittert. “It’s tragic that we’re sending these puppies to slaughter.” 

The report revealed that the NIAID spent $1.68 million in taxpayer money on drug tests that involved 44 beagle puppies that were six to eight months old.

One concern shared by lawmakers was an invoice to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that included a line item for “cordectomy,” a move the Cancer Treatment Center of America described as a surgical procedure that removes part, or all, the vocal cords and is commonly performed on those with laryngeal cancer.

Leaders claim the move is to prevent the puppies from barking, howling or crying.

“This cruel procedure — which is opposed with rare exceptions by the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Animal Hospital Association, and others — seems to have been performed so that experimenters would not have to listen to the pained cries of the beagle puppies,” the letter said.

Mace said this is why she and her colleagues are calling for more information to be released about these studies.

“This is a first step. It is not the last step in the process,” Mace said. “The more that I learned, the worse it gets.”

Mace believes that Fauci should be held accountable, and also accused the NIAID director of misleading people on various issues regarding COVID-19.

Mace also noted that the FDA does not even approve of these types of studies.

“They’ve given laboratories and scientists guidance that these … experiments are unnecessary on animals … so if it’s good enough not to kill puppies for the FDA, it ought to be good enough for every dollar that we’re sending overseas for other scientific experiments.”

NewsNation affiliate WCBD contributed to this report.