Beagles Rescued from Barcelona Testing Lab, November 2011

Video and description done by "butterfly031949". (This post and credit all goes to her and many thanks to her.) It is a beautifully moving video and her written description details how the rescue of the 72 Spanish Laboratory Beagles came to be. My precious foster baby, Zoomer--one of the most frightened of the all 72 is at minutes 1:34, 3:13, and 3:24. He was known as "Morgan Freeman" in Spain, but before that, he was known only by the number tattooed in his ear. My other precious foster baby, also formerly known only as a number, then by "Tom Hanks" and now his name is Scout; I didn't see him in the video. Please enjoy the video and read the description to find out how their freedom began:

Beagles rescued from Barcelona testing lab, November 2011.wmv
From: butterfly031949 | Dec 6, 2011 | 522 views
This is the story of 72 beagle dogs that had spent their entire lives living in cages in a laboratory in Barcelona, Spain. On 21st October Eve Allen and her partner Graham, who live near Alicante, were made aware of this particular laboratory closing. A two week deadline had been set to re-home these dogs before they would be euthanised. Eve and her vets Eva & Willie at CanisaX had decided to try and rescue 6 to 10 of the younger dogs in the hope of giving them a second chance at a normal life filled with love and trust.

Eve contacted Little Pod Foundation in the hope people would be able to help by either funding or re-homing some of these dogs. Messages soon came in from Spanish Stray Dogs and APAPA in Southern Spain advising they would try to help by taking some of the dogs. More volunteers offered to help and an association in Germany offered to take 10 more of the dogs.

Then a lady named Shannon Keith at the Beagle Freedom Project in Los Angeles, America said she would take all the dogs.There are 12 Beagles that are 1 - 1 & 1/2 years old - These have NOT been tested on. There are 60 Beagles that are 4 years old and these HAVE been tested on. All 72 dogs have received vaccinations, rabies injections and microchips.The laboratory advised they would help with funding for the re-homing of any of the dogs within Spain but not abroad. There were offers of homes in Spain for up to 40 beagles. The Beagle Freedom Project advised they would pay for their flights and the laboratory covered the extra cost of their travelling crates.

Eve was advised that all 72 beagles were male and un-neutered. The 12 younger dogs are healthy and have not been used for testing, the 60 older dogs have had tests done on them but none of the dogs carry anything contagious to animals or humans, these dogs have been used for human medical research but the dogs are all healthy and the lab does not foresee any adverse long term effects. The dogs have been kept singly in cages but with possibly 10 in a room.

Requests of help circulated the internet for bedding, blankets, food and the deadline for the dogs was drawing closer. Over the following days Eve and Teresa in Madrid worked endlessly to make the logistical arrangements for the release of the beagles, their transport, their temporary home and their flights to Los Angeles. Eve had offered up her own home and kennels to keep the dogs safe until they could be flown to L.A where the Beagle Freedom Project would meet them off the plane. On the 11th November 7 more dogs were released from the laboratory and were on their way to Phil Wren from APAPA in Ayamonte, Spain. The remaining 40 beagles in the laboratory would be released that weekend, 20 beagles would be released on Tuesday 15th November with the remaining 20 on Wednesday 16th November.

With the hard work and help of Teresa at AAH Veterinarian Services the first 20 dogs arrived healthy but were terrified. You could see the unknowing of what was happening to them in their eyes. The sign of the abuse they have been through is clear to see. They all have terrible scars on their paws from needles being constantly inserted and they all have very bad teeth. They had no idea what to do outside of a cage. They had never felt the ground below their feet and were reluctant to put their feet down on the new textures. They had never been in the open air or felt the warmth and love from a human being. But they were not underweight and were not hungry.

On the 22nd November all 40 beagles travelled up to Madrid Airport. From there they flew directly to Los Angeles in America where they were met by Shannon Keith and her team of volunteers. Andy Baker from Spanish Stray Dogs travelled to LA with the dogs. They all arrived well and safely, some are in foster homes while others have already been re-homed with their new permanent families.

Beagles are very placid, this is why laboratories use this breed. They had just been known as a number tattoed inside their ears so they were each named after a male movie star before leaving Spain.

See more photos of the beagles who went to the US, read their foster families stories & marvel at how they're adapting. The Foster beagles Facebook group is https://www.facebook.com/groups/276242102418141/

Video of dogs arriving at LAX http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45431524#45431524
Photos of dogs in the US https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.101509535885855...

14 minute video of beagles in Spain in the lead up to leaving for the US.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=276761929028393

Finding new homes for these rescued beagles, see http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_19483332

Some text has been taken from http://www.coastrider.net/news/national-news-spain/14765-... (less info)