This summer, 4,000 beagles felt sun on their faces and grass under their paws for the first time after an abusive Virginia puppy mill that bred dogs for experiments was shut down by federal authorities. Following a Herculean national effort, the dogs were relocated and adopted out into loving homes.
There are still 60,000 dogs confined in U.S. laboratories, and most of them won’t be so lucky. The overwhelming majority are killed when they’re no longer needed, even if they’re healthy.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. There are active initiatives at the state and federal level to promote lab animal adoption. My own peer-reviewed research shows that dogs released from labs make great companions, despite the trauma they’ve endured.
In a newly published study, my co-author and I compared the emotional and behavioral characteristics of a sample of over 300 beagles, including 100 adopted former lab dogs, and 244 dogs with no history of lab use.
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We looked at a number of different everyday behaviors and found that former lab beagles were significantly less aggressive toward people and other dogs than their nonlab counterparts. They were also more attached to their caregivers, and just as trainable.
We did observe that the former lab beagles exhibited increased fearfulness and more abnormal behaviors than nonlab dogs. This is heartbreaking, but is to be expected. These dogs have likely been confined in small cages in sterile labs without adequate socialization, and experienced physical and emotional trauma from being forced to repeatedly endure painful and invasive procedures. What we saw in the rescued lab beagles may be symptomatic Canine Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder like that seen in military working dogs.
Overall, we saw no significant differences between the former lab dogs and nonlab dogs in a majority of the behaviors we assessed. Our research demonstrates that dogs re-homed from labs form strong bonds with their caregivers and make great pets.
Despite the growing evidence that animals in labs can be successfully retired and re-homed, the nonprofit White Coat Waste Project (WCW) has obtained records showing that healthy animals are often killed by government labs because of a lack of knowledge about retirement options and, in some disturbing cases, out of sheer convenience. This is cruel and unacceptable.
To its credit, Virginia is one of 15 states with laws requiring or encouraging the retirement and adoption of cats and dogs from labs. Virginia’s law was updated this year to cover animals at breeding facilities, too.
On a federal level, some agencies like the Food and Drug Administration have enacted lab animal retirement policies, but others have not. Currently, I’m working with WCW and a bipartisan coalition of over 110 members of Congress to pass the Animal Freedom from Testing, Experimentation and Research Act, also named “Violet’s Law” after a hound dog adopted from a lab. This law would require all federal agencies to enact policies that allow lab animal retirement and adoption. The same needs to be done at all taxpayer-funded labs across the country.
Finding homes for animals in labs is increasingly important as research continues to demonstrate that animal testing, aside from being inhumane, is inefficient and unnecessary. The federal government reports that nine out of 10 drugs that pass animal tests fail in human trials, and agencies are working to shift to more humane and effective alternatives. The Department of Veterans Affairs’ lab in Richmond, for instance, recently ended its last active painful experiments on dogs and has committed to using new research methods.
Post-research retirement for animals is a widely popular concept supported by more than 70% of Americans, as well as animal advocates, scientists, and even organizations that promote animal testing.
For dogs unlucky enough to end up in laboratories, the least we can do is to give those who survive a second chance at the freedom, love and care they deserve.
Stacy Lopresti-Goodman is a professor of psychology at Marymount University in Arlington. She also serves as a volunteer adviser for the nonprofit White Coat Waste Project, which works to end government animal tests and retire animals from federal labs. Contact her at stacy.lopresti-goodman@marymount.edu.
