Shannon Keith and Gary Smith started the Beagle Freedom Project to find new homes for beagles that have been used for research. They named their first rescue dogs Freedom and Bigsby, and videotaped the beagles' first brush with the great outdoors. Be warned that the video, while not graphic, may be disturbing and you'll want to have a hanky handy.
The video of Freedom and Bigsby is at the home page of the organization. http://beaglefreedomproject.org/ -via Nag on the Lake
Anyone interested in fostering or adopting a lab beagle should be aware of the challenges these dogs have. They will not be accustomed to life in a home and will not have experience with children, cats, or other dogs. They will not be house-trained and accidents will happen, although they learn quickly. Many have gone directly from a commercial breeder to the lab, and have never felt grass under their feet or even seen the sun. They will have been fed a special diet formulated for lab animals and may be difficult to adjust to new foods. They will be unfamiliar with treats, toys, bedding and may never have walked on a leash. They will have lived in cages with steel wire floors and may have inflamed or infected paws from the pressure. They may be fearful of people initially and may have phobias from a lifetime in confinement or from being restrained. They are likely to have been surgically de-barked by the breeder and have an ID number tattooed in their ear. Please also be aware that although these beagles are considered healthy, you will be given very little information about the beagle’s medical history, and you will not be told its origins or what kind of testing they may have been used for.
The video of Freedom and Bigsby is at the home page of the organization. http://beaglefreedomproject.org/ -via Nag on the Lake
I like all the emotionally loaded language they use too, if you want companies to stop testing on animals then how about you refuse to take or use their products, or better yet volunteer to have the drugs tested on you.
Don't sit there and watch that video and get all weepy and go "aww, those poor things". Get off your ass, do some research and support companies who don't test on animals [there are a lot] and forget about these companies who do. It might be difficult and hard, but if enough people do it, it *might* open the eyes of the people who give the okay to do this and they'll rethink this whole system.
But most people are super apathetic and don't give a shit about anyone but themselves. OR they don't want to believe that this stuff goes on.
Not sure why they're using beagles anyway. Wouldn't testing be more successful on a Lab?
Regardless of the opinions of the rescue being inflamatory or otherwise its a nice extra element of humility that said musician is just being 'a guy named Zoli' for the video.
I wonder why they use beagles? I know they use cats for vision research as their visual acuity is very similar to ours in daylight. I know they use guinea pigs for hearing research as their inner ears are particularly similar to ours. I know they very occasionally use chimps and other apes/monkeys obviously because they are similar to humans in many ways. They generally use rats the rest of the time, which are far more similar to humans than you would thinks. So why beagles?
As for why beagles? Simple. It's what also makes them such amazing pets. They're small, highly adaptable, easily handled/managed, amiable, and smart. Who better to exploit than an individual that's so sweet, trusting and eager to please, oh and small enough to control when they stop being so eager to please.
To those that believe animal testing is justifiable, you are a not only a speciacist, but you are not knowledgeable. The number of tests conducted on animals that are done only out of liability is staggering. Most companies are not required to test and only do so to protect themselves legally. They don't care about you as the consumer.
Do I really need to feed a gallon of liquid paper to an animal, or pour bleach in a rabbit's eyes to prove it's lethal or corrosive? Any chemist can tell you that simply by it's chemical compound.
And as for the remaining tests results, regardless of any test's efficacy with animals it cannot be transferred to humans. It's not possible. Different DNA, different results. Dare I mention Thalidomide? That had a 100% success rate. And we all know how that turned out, just to name one. I think the point here is to rally to end this bullshit on all animals. No eating, no wearing, no testing. I think it's time we left them all well enough alone, and helped those we've brutalized so profoundly.
-medstudent
Prescription medication is the 4th leading cause of death in the U.S. We are not mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, or any other type of animal that is experimented on. Our bodies do not behave the same. Many products are tested on animals not because they have to be, but because doing so legally protects the manufacturer from lawsuits. However, there are other, humane methods of testing (such as in-vitro, computer simulation, EpiDerm/EpiSkin test, etc). We have absolutely no right to use these animals against their will.