Last summer I adopted a 2 month old Beagle puppy that we rescued from a puppy mill here in Minnesota. I did not know much about Beagles at the time, I just knew I wanted a medium sized dog and once I saw this cute puppy on the Wags & Whiskers adoption website I was a goner!
When my co-worker (a dog lover like myself!) found out I had adopted a Beagle, she told me I had to watch this video from the Beagle Freedom project that showed Beagles who had lived their whole lives inside a research lab confined to metal cages, seeing sunshine and grass for the first time.
Saddened by this video, I started to do my own research and what I found out was startling! There are many animals used for testing, but Beagles are the most common due to their good tempered nature. Many common products are tested on animals before being introducing to the general population. But many of these dogs are forced to live in very inhumane conditions, left in cages, abused, even having their vocal chords taken out so they do not disturb the lab workers. In my search I have seen countless photos of Beagles wearing gas masks, burnt, and bloodied.
This article from the Huffington Post chronicles just one story of abuse from a lab in North Carolina where 4 lab workers were charged with 14 felonies of animal abuse.
I realize that testing on animals has contributed to many life-saving cures and treatments, but there has to be a better way. There are many alternative testing methods such as In vitro (in glass) testing, where cell cultures are studied in a petri dish, and can produce more relevant results than animal testing because human cells can be used. Furthermore the FDA does not require testing on animals in order to develop products.
Animal testing is cruel and inhumane and only we can make a difference to put an end to Beagle torture by asking companies to stop using them (and other animals) to test their products!
There is currently a Beagle Freedom Bill movement happening right here in Minnesota! This Bill will ensure that tax-payer funded laboratories in MN offer up the dogs and cats for public adoption through rescue organizations at the end of research. Today, standard procedure is to summarily euthanize (destroy) all of these animals.
To learn more and to join the movement, check out the Beagle Freedom website for more information, including a list of companies that test on Beagles.
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That video of the beagle’s first step into freedom was pretty moving. I really enjoyed your blog post, and my mom is a huge dog lover (so I can relate). That’s kind of rubbed off on me and some of this is pretty horrifying to read. I agree that humane alternatives to lab testing need to be implemented. Specifically, those that don’t involve the harm of any animal.
I like knowing there are more efforts to combat these testings and I had no idea it was happening so close to home. I have really gotten into a show called Pit Bulls and Parolees based out of California. Their specialty is Pit bulls but the rescue mission is the same to help broken dogs, fit in a new better life. http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/pitbulls-and-parolees