The agency is cutting animal testing of chemicals. Some scientists are concerned, but in the meantime the rats (and zebra fish) need new homes.

Employees at the Environmental Protection Agency’s research campus in North Carolina are preparing to take on a new responsibility. Bring home lab rats as pets.

Or maybe some zebra fish.

Both animals have long been used at the E.P.A. facility to test the toxicity of chemicals. But as the E.P.A. shuts down its research arm as part of the Trump administration’s deep cuts to government scientific work, the animals need new homes.

So employees at the agency’s sprawling Research Triangle Park in North Carolina have set up an adoption plan, according to four people with knowledge of the program. Staff members can take home the rats or fish and keep them as pets.

“Adopt love. Save a life,” read a poster displayed on campus last week, according to a picture obtained