360 Beagle Puppies Bred for Experiments Found Dead at Breeding Mill
The investigation draws attention to the extreme abuse inherent in the animal experimentation industry.
A USDA-monitored facility that supplies beagles to laboratories for experimentation has come under fire after animal abuse was revealed by a PETA exposé.
Envigo produces around 500 beagle puppies every month to sell for experimentation. At the breeding mill in Cumberland, Virginia, around 5,000 beagles are kept in “barren kennels and cramped cages”, with female dogs being forced to breed twice a year for up to seven years, according to PETA.
“If the puppies at Envigo survive the trauma of being born into a barren cage, blasted with a high-pressure hose, and the painful procedures they’re subjected to, more horrors await them at the laboratories they’re sold to,” says PETA Vice President of International Programmes Mimi Bekhechi. “These dogs are no different to the dogs who share our homes, and yet if anyone not wearing a white lab coat did to their dog what experimenters are doing to these beagles, they’d rightly be put behind bars.”
During the investigation, workers with no veterinary credentials stuck needles into puppies’ heads apparently to drain hematomas, without pain relief, causing the puppies to scream. They also cut prolapsed tissue off puppies’ eyes with scissors and injected euthanasia drugs directly into puppies’ hearts without sedation. Nursing mothers were also deprived of food for up to two days, according to PETA.
More than 350 puppies were also found dead among their live littermates and mothers, some of which had been crushed to death by their mothers due to the cramped conditions. Others had died of pneumonia or hepatitis due to the harsh conditions. Dogs were also routinely sprayed with high-pressure hoses which “left the puppies shivering on the hard plastic floor”, reports PETA.
Based on the evidence, a team of US Department of Agriculture officials conducted a multi-day inspection of the mill.
Animal experimentation is not only cruel, it’s outdated. Find out more on how campaigners are working to change the system and stop animal tests: listen to our podcast episode “Tax Payer Funded Torture” with Justin Goodman of The White Coat Waste Project here.
Warning: graphic footage
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