{"id":768391,"date":"2022-05-25T07:02:57","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T11:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=768391"},"modified":"2022-05-25T07:41:40","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T11:41:40","slug":"hundreds-of-beagles-suffered-and-died-at-dog-breeding-facility-before-government-took-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=768391","title":{"rendered":"TOO LATE FOR TEARS: Hundreds of beagles suffered and died at animal testing breeding facility before U.S. government took action"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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The lack of punitive action, given the gravity and number of the violations, has shocked and mystified animal welfare advocates. The disregard for the law and the welfare of the beagles has resulted in their needless suffering and death. <\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

RACHEL FOBAR:<\/strong> It took media attention to \u2018chilling\u2019 welfare violations and bipartisan calls for action before authorities intervened. On May 21, a U.S. district court judge ordered Envigo\u2019s Cumberland facility to \u201cimmediately cease breeding, selling, or otherwise dealing in beagles\u201d until it separates dogs that don\u2019t get along, ensures every puppy has access to clean water, and submits an inventory of every dog to the government, among other requirements…<\/em><\/p>\n

Envigo breeds beagles as well as primates, rabbits, and rodents for use in toxicology research and other medical experiments… More than 5,000 dogs were crowded in small, barren cages lined with feces and mold. A three-week-old puppy was stuck in a waste pan under his cage, dried feces matting his fur. Fights between kennel mates had left some dogs dead, including one by \u201cevisceration”…<\/em><\/p>\n

In four visits to the Cumberland operation since July 2021 \u2014 most recently in March 2022 \u2014 USDA inspectors documented more than 70 welfare violations. They found that 13 beagle mothers who were nursing litters of six-week-old puppies, 78 in all, had gone without food for 42 hours. According to the inspectors\u2019 report, Envigo deprived the mothers to reduce their milk production as part of its \u201cweaning of puppies\u201d procedure…<\/em><\/p>\n

These violations and dozens more were documented in recent United States Department of Agriculture public inspection reports. Yet for months, the USDA, which is responsible for enforcing the Animal Welfare Act, neither confiscated any dogs nor suspended or revoked the license of the animal-breeding facility in Cumberland, Virginia. The facility is owned by Envigo, a privately held company with 20 locations across North America and Europe that provides animals for pharmaceutical and biomedical research.<\/em><\/p>\n

In early May, National Geographic approached the USDA for comment about the facility\u2019s history of violations and ongoing welfare problems. On May 18, authorities from the USDA and the Department of Justice confiscated 145 dogs in need of immediate medical care from Envigo\u2019s facility in Cumberland, Virginia, according to a complaint filed the next day by the DOJ in federal court against Envigo. The Humane Society of the United States assisted in the seizures.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cEnvigo\u2019s disregard for the law and the welfare of the beagles in its care has resulted in the animals\u2019 needless suffering and, in some cases, death,\u201d according to the DOJ complaint… The lack of punitive action before May 18, given the gravity and number of the violations, has shocked and mystified animal welfare advocates. \u201cIt is baffling\u201d that the USDA repeatedly cited Envigo without rendering \u201cimmediate aid to those animals,\u201d said Daphna Nachminovitch, senior vice president of cruelty investigations for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which carried out a separate undercover investigation at Envigo last year…<\/em><\/p>\n

USDA records also show that Huntingdon Life Sciences, which later merged with Harlan Labs to form Envigo, has had violations going back to the late 1990s. Citations from a 1997 report on Huntingdon showed \u201csevere\u201d suffering at a New Jersey facility\u2014including a dog with an untreated broken leg, a drugged dog that was recommended for euthanasia but was not put down, and primates crying out and vomiting, unattended by a veterinarian. Envigo\u2019s record is an \u201cunmitigated, unprecedented disaster,\u201d says Eric Kleiman, a researcher at the Animal Welfare Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C…<\/em><\/p>\n

National Geographic has documented a pattern of USDA failure to take action over animal welfare violations during the past several years, marked by a 90 percent drop in enforcement actions against licensed animal facilities between 2015 and 2020. There were two high-profile license revocations late last year… more than 300 puppies died at Envigo\u2019s Cumberland branch between January 1 and July 20, 2021, and \u201cthe facility has not taken additional steps to determine the causes of death,\u201d according to the USDA report. Yet for months, the department failed to take any action…<\/em><\/p>\n

A recent investigation of another facility accredited by AAALAC indicates that Envigo\u2019s welfare problems are not isolated. Inotiv\u2014a rapidly expanding multinational pharmaceutical development company that breeds, sells, and conducts toxicology and other experiments on animals\u2014reported $89.6 million in revenue last year, when it acquired Envigo. Inotiv owns about 62,000 animals, including monkeys, rabbits, and cats, as well as the thousands of beagles.<\/em><\/p>\n

In a seven-month undercover investigation of an Inotiv laboratory in Mount Vernon, Indiana, released on April 21, the Humane Society of the United States found that dogs, primates, pigs, mice, and rats faced \u201cprolonged, unalleviated pain\u201d during toxicology tests before they died. Toxicology tests assess an animal\u2019s tolerance to drugs. Doses administered by injection or feeding tube are increased until the animal experiences adverse effects…<\/em><\/p>\n

The multiple severe violations documented at Envigo\u2019s facility and the alleged failure to follow euthanasia procedures at Inotiv\u2019s should be a wakeup call for the USDA to ramp up its oversight and enforcement of animal breeding and research companies, Kleiman says. \u201cResearch won\u2019t police itself.\u201d Kleiman says the USDA should send an unequivocal message that \u201cno matter how large, how powerful, how wealthy\u201d these companies are, animal suffering won\u2019t be tolerated. \u201cThis is a nasty business,” Block says. \u201cThere\u2019s cruelty everywhere, from the beginning of it to the end”.\u00a0 SOURCE…<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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