Live Animal Testing Beagle Dog Farm Approved In Britain: Vivisection Will Be Done

A new puppy farm has been approved in Britain, where beagles will be bred solely for animal testing. And animal rights activists are up in arms that live beagle dogs will be used in testing. Yorkshire Evergreen, which is part of the United States group Marshall BioResources, owns the facility and also breeds genetically-modified mice. It’s also a hub for imported beagle dogs. The facility will open in Grimston, near Hull, and will conduct vivisection as well as drug test experiments, according to Metro.

It’s the second facility in Britain that breeds beagles to be used for experimentation. The other is in Harlan, Cambridgeshire, where 3,000 beagles are bred each year for experiments. The animal testing is through vivisection. The dogs experimented on are alive when cut open. This is a controversial procedure as far as animal-rights proponents are concerned. The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) calls the approval for the new facility a “betrayal of the animals, the public and science,” according to the Huffington Post.

Known animal advocate comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted his disgust over the news, stating, “They can’t torture the foxes, so they’ll torture the hounds. Government allows beagles to be bred for testing.”

Queen guitarist Brian May stated the following.

“I am sickened to hear that this facility is to go ahead, ignoring the views of the public and local authorities and condemning these best friends of man to thousands of unethical and unnecessary tests. This is an appalling message to send out to the world.”

NAVS stated that the dogs face horrible fates. They are forced to inhale substances through masks on their muzzles, helplessly strapped down while being forced with injections, and force fed through tubes. The helpless dogs are forced to have various chemicals tested on them, such as weed killer, pharmaceutical drugs, and industrial chemicals.

The dog farm was initially not approved, as many petitions opposed it — over 100,000 people signing petitions against such perceived cruelty. The Animal Justice Project has started a petition against it, calling for an appeal of the approval for the dog testing facility.

Tom Holder, the director of Speaking for Research, apparently believes that animal testing is the most accurate method to test various pharmaceuticals and other medical modalities, and stated that “[d]ogs have played a crucial role in medical advances including the development of ECG, insulin, heart transplant surgery and treatments for prostate cancer.”

Others, however, such as Grahame Morris MP, apparently believe that there are viable, more humane alternative methods to do such testing without using live animals. He stated the following.

“I am extremely disappointed that Yorkshire Evergreen’s plans have been approved. It makes absolutely no sense and is completely out-of-step with the government commitment to reduce the number of animals in experiments. I will do all I can to oppose similar plans and encourage scientists to use cutting-edge alternatives.”

Do you approve of experimentation on animals? Do you believe that vivisection should be conducted? Please leave your comments below.

Some view animal experimentation as animal abuse, not as furthering a scientific cause. Then there is clear-cut animal abuse in which someone with evil intentions purposely harms an animal. Bree Smith of Carlsbad, California, went on a three-day vacation. She never expected to return home on June 23 to find that someone had poisoned one of her beloved canine companions, an 8-year-old rescued dachshund mix named Simon. The poor dog was lying in her garage, poisoned, according to an article in the Inquisitr.

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