Late Night: Let’s Hear It for the Beagle Freedom Project!
Posted: December 1, 2011 Filed under: just because | Tags: animal cruelty, animal testing, Beagles, research lab animals 8 CommentsVia Time Magazine, The beagles in the above video were rescued from experimental animal lab at a California university in June. From NBC LA:
Nine beagles who were released Wednesday from a California university animal testing lab, arrived in Los Angeles Wednesday night on the first step of a journey which, hopefully, will lead them to new homes.
These dogs were bred specifically for research, according to the Beagle Freedom Project. The dogs have lived in the lab almost their entire lives.
Shannon Keith, of the Beagle Freedom Project, said dogs were scared and shaking.
“At this point, it’ll take a few days to do blood tests and see what’s up with them,” Keith said. “They’ve never felt a human touch of kindness.”
Keith said the dogs have never seen the outdoors, never walked on grass, and never smelled fresh air until they were released on Wednesday.
Did you know that beagles are the breed of dog most commonly used in research? I didn’t. It’s because they tend to be friendly, gentle, and docile and thus easy to control.
Recently, the group rescued 72 Beagles from a research lab in Spain–32 of the dogs were adopted in Europe and 40 were brought back to Los Angeles to receive treatment and hopefully find homes in the U.S.
All the male beagles, which are between 4 and 7 years old, have lived in cages their entire lives, [Gary] Smith, [the group’s spokesman] said.
“We’ve been told they lived one per cage in rooms of 10 beagles, but they never had any physical interaction with one another,” Smith said. “They’ve been in kennels since they were rescued about a week ago, but aside from that, they’ve spent most of their lives locked up.”
[….]
“Beagles are incredibly sweet, docile, companion animals,” Smith said. “The downfall is, the same reason the beagle is a perfect companion animal, is the same reason they’re used for testing.”
Wednesday’s rescue is the fourth for the Beagle Freedom Project, and according to Smith, by far, its largest mission.
Beagle Freedom Project will be seeking adoptive homes for these special beagles. You can find more information by clicking here.
Please watch the video. You’ll be glad you did. It went a ways toward restoring my faith in humanity for today anyway. But when you watch, keep a box of Kleenex handy.
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The articles said that veteranarians are involved with this kind of research–that they have to make sure the animals are treated humanely. How can keeping a dog in a cage by itself for years be considered humane?
That is every bit as fraudulent as our government claiming waterboarding isn’t torture. Thanks to the people who are rescuing these poor creatures and giving them a second chance at a normal life!
The beagles I’ve know are loving and loyal.
Perhaps it is laziness or greed to keep living animals (thinking and feeling social animals) in cages. The results of any research on these animals is questionable — the emotional state of the test subject is an important variable. Play behavior is very important to dogs — either with humans or other animals.
It seems as if the physiological has been divorced from the behavioral in whatever research being conducted by “veterinarians”.
Those are excellent points. The emotion state of the test subject is important and so is the environemtnal experience. These dogs can’t possibily be normal if they’re getting no sunlight, no exercise, no social interaction.
The vets don’t do the research. They’re supposed to make sure there is no animal cruelty. I guess they are paid to sign off on the torture and say it isn’t torture–like the psychiatrists who help the CIA design torture methods.
The NYT has an article about military dogs showing the same sort of post traumatic stress as humans put through the hell of war.
Well duh — why is this a surprise to anyone???????????????
Not surprising, but I’m very glad they are doing this research anyway.
It’s both heartening and disturbing at the same time – I simply will never understand testing on animals.
Here’s a link to the chimpanzees released from the lab:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2034439/Lab-chimps-freed-caged-fior-30-years-injected-HIV.html
It’s just horrifying. Thank you for that link. It’s so good to know that some human beings are capable of compassion and caring. Sometimes following politics I start to feel like I don’t belong in this world because I don’t really care about money or power and I’m capable of empathy.
Awwww. I’m a doggie person–grew up with dogs and have Berners now as companions [and barkers]. Never owned a Beagle and did not know they were the preferred research breed. The video is just . . . a tear jerker supreme. The idea that these critters have spent their lives in cages is obscene. For a dog not to be able to run and play, have affection shown and in turn provide affection to humans and other pups is equivalent to squeezing their dogginess out of them, turning them into mere commodities.
There’s something very sick in that idea. We do that to other domestic animals through our argibusiness techniques and treatment. But we also do that to humans when we reduce people to data points, statistics and make the poor, disabled, elderly, homeless invisible on society’s radar.
We need a Freedom Project for the world. This is a good, heart-warming start. Let’s hear it for the doggies!! There’s a reason they’re called man’s best friend. We should be returning that favor, always.
Thanks for the post, BB.