The first of some 4000 beagles that will be up for adoption from the Envigo breeding facility in Cumberland County will be released starting Friday.
A federal judge in Lynchburg, Virginia signed off on a plan for the Humane Society to transfer about 4,000 beagles from Envigo’s Cumberland breeder mill to shelters so they can be placed for adoption.
Envigo is a privately held contract research organization that provides research models and related products and services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, government, academia and other life science organizations
Envigo, the Humane Society and the U.S. government presented the joint plan after U.S. District Judge Norman Moon refused Envigo’s bids for permission to sell more than 2,000 beagles to fulfill a sister company’s research contracts.
Envigo will pay the Humane Society a $100 fee per beagle and $150 per nursing mother and litter under 8 weeks.
The Humane Society will transmit the fees to shelters in order to defray the costs of preparing the beagles for adoption.
“Virginia is for dog lovers today,” said Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, who sponsored legislation to protect dogs and cats at research facilities, along with Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax and Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle.
Stanley has adopted two dogs from the facility.
Inotiv, Envigo’s Indiana-based parent company, recently announced its plans to close Envigo’s beagle mill, which Moon has castigated for its “torturous abuse” of dogs and puppies in repeated violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
Last year, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals conducted an undercover investigation at the Envigo’s Cumberland facility. PETA posted disturbing video of beagles housed in what it called a “prison like factory.”
Daphna Nachminovitch, PETA’s senior vice president of cruelty investigations, said in a statement:
“PETA’s groundbreaking undercover investigation helped spark a historic domino effect of state and federal legislative and law-enforcement action that paved the way for these dogs’ independence and this dog prison’s closure.
