One year ago, the Humane Society of the United States was in the midst of removing nearly 4,000 beagles from Envigo, a mass breeding facility that received multiple Animal Welfare Act violations for issues such as inadequate veterinary care and insufficient food. If not for this historic transfer agreement, many of these dogs were bound for animal testing laboratories across the country. Instead, we placed them with over 100 of our shelter and rescue partners around the country (in 29 states!) to find loving homes.
Dogs like Franny, who had spent her life at Envigo being forced to breed puppies to be sold to laboratories, and Enzo, a young puppy likely destined for a laboratory, are among the beagles who have underscored the significance of this historic operation.
VIDEO of Franny’s transformation and life in new home
VIDEO of Enzo’s first year in new home
“These dogs have spent the last year learning how to walk on leashes, finding the most comfortable spot on the couch, and becoming treasured family members in their loving homes,” said Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States. “Dogs used in laboratories typically live short, painful lives. It’s heartbreaking to think about what would have happened to these beagles if Envigo had been able to sell them to laboratories. Animal experimentation is undeniably cruel while non-animal models, such as organs-on-chips, computer modelling and human cell-based tests, are better for the animals and for humans. We were able to save these lucky few beagles, but more are being bred and sold to laboratories every day--it’s on all of us to make this change.”
As the Humane Society of the United States celebrates the happy stories from the loving adopters of these dogs, we are doing all we can to ensure no other company steps in to simply replace those dogs. On average, nearly 60,000 dogs are used in experiments each year in the U.S. and tens of thousands more are held in laboratory breeding facilities. Join us in calling on state and federal officials to end experiments on dogs and invest in science that doesn’t cause animal suffering.
We are leading a worldwide campaign to ensure that animal tests and experiments are systematically replaced with non-animal alternatives that are better at predicting how the human body will respond to drugs, chemicals and medical devices and more effective for researching how human diseases develop and respond to treatment.
In pursuit of that goal, in the U.S., we have secured funding commitments from Congress to ensure that Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration accelerate the development of non-animal methods and reduce or eliminate animal testing. We are also pushing the FDA to ensure that non-animal methods for drugs, medical devices and vaccines are being developed, approved and used instead of animal tests. Read more about our efforts to prevent dogs like Enzo from suffering in the name of science.
