The Great Italian Beagle Rescue
It’s been one of the biggest dog rescues in history: 2,500 beagles who were destined for vivisection experiments are being rescued from the infamous Green Hill breeding facility in northern Italy. And adoption applications have been coming in by the thousand. [readon]
It’s taken a lot of work to shut down Green Hill. Three months ago, a dozen anti-vivisection activists were arrested after they broke into the facility to rescue puppies. The news caused an uproar in Italy. Green Hill sued the people who had broken in, and the animal protection group Legambiente counter-sued. Judges paid a visit as part of an investigation, and finally 30 rangers from Italy’s forest service were dispatched by the authorities to raid the Green Hill compound and take possession of the dogs.
The dogs – adults and puppies – were being kept in seriously overcrowded conditions in a series of hangars. Dozens were found dead.
Green Hill is owned by the U.S.-based multinational corporation Marshall Bio Resources, a commercial breeder of beagles, other dogs, mini pigs and ferrets for vivisection.
Adoptions began this week. Prospective homes are warned that the dogs have never been socialized and lived in a very difficult situation. But beagles are quiet, placid dogs – which is why they make such good subjects for medical experiments – and previous rescues from laboratories have resulted in good new lives in wonderful homes. For example, check out the rescue of beagles from a laboratory in Spain and from another in New Jersey.