4000 beagles rescued from Virginia breeding center where they're being killed over minor illnesses
CUMBERLAND, VIRGINIA: After being freed from a US breeding center, more than 4,000 beagles are now looking for new homes. The breeding facility was marketing the dogs to labs for various drug tests and research. Animal rescue workers are currently evacuating the animals from the Virginia facility in what is being considered one of the largest dog rescue operations ever undertaken in the US, according to a report by BBC.
Kitty Block, the president and senior executive of the US Humane Society, revealed the difficulties of this rescue operation. In an interview with Reuters, Block said, "It’s going to take 60 days to get all of these animals out, and working with our shelter and rescue partners across the country, working with them to get these dogs into eventually into ever-loving homes." The beagles are being sent to shelters throughout America, where they will be offered vet examinations, given shots, and other therapies before being put up for adoption to the general populace.
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The Department of Justice sued Envigo RMS LLC in May alleging Animal Welfare Act violations at the facility in Cumberland, following which in June, parent company Inotiv Inc said it would close the facility. Envigo settled with the government in July, without paying any fines.
At the facility, beagles were being slaughtered instead of being treated for potentially curable illnesses, federal investigators discovered, according to the US Humane Society. The meals given to breastfeeding mother beagles were contaminated with feces, mold, and maggots. Since the beagles lived in cramped housing, some canines sustained injuries when assaulted by other beagles. Additionally, they discovered that in an eight-weeks span, 25 pups perished from vulnerability to the cold.
Bill Stanley, a Republican state senator from Virginia, revealed that he had tried to commence the beagle relief efforts three years earlier. Stanley told Reuters, "I tried to shut them down in 2019, but was not successful. But over the years, we never stopped fighting."
The US Humane Society now faces the task of providing shelters to more than 4,000 canines. "Finding partners who can make space ... in the summer - a time of year when animal shelters already are over-capacity - will be a feat of epic proportions," the society said in a message. "We are ready to take on the challenge and are grateful to our rescue and shelter partners... whose dedicated efforts will make it possible for these dogs to find loving homes."