Global Giant Helps Tiny Dogs
When a person thinks about their ideal dog, or the best candidate for a future man’s best friend, they usually desire qualities such as loyalty, kindness and easy going attitudes. Beagles are routinely chosen for adoption by families all over the world because they are usually easy to train and are very sociable.
The sad thing is that these are the qualities that researchers look for when searching for animals on whom to perform experiments. Beagles are one of the most desired and targeted breeds for laboratory testing because of their friendly, docile, trusting, forgiving, people-pleasing personalities. The research laboratories note they are adaptable to living in a cage and are inexpensive to feed; furthermore, these beagles are usually obtained directly from commercial breeders who specifically breed dogs to sell to scientific institutions. The chosen beagles are forced to spend half of their lives in a wire metal cage in order to be tested on for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biomedical industries. And the worst thing is that after they are no longer needed for testing, the fate of these animals is left up to the laboratory directors; however, it should be noted that some of the better labs try to find foster or forever homes for the adoptable, healthy beagles.
And that is where the Beagle Freedom Project steps in:
Source: Beagle Freedom Project
Working directly with these cooperating labs, this organization rescues, rehabilitates and finds homes for animals across the globe. Not only does Beagle Freedom Project rescue these helpless animals, but the organization also makes sure to tell their stories in an effort to educate the world about animal testing, find alternatives to using animals for testing and hopefully resulting in the advancement of animal and human welfare.
Recently, Microsoft’s #UpgradeYourWorld Initiative has awarded the BFP $500,000 to help fund their rescue efforts. Along with the monetary donation, the organization will also receive Microsoft technology, services and promotional support.
“Knowing that a company like Microsoft is using its position to help charities such as ours is a testament to its compassion for helping those in need,” said Shannon Keith, president of Beagle Freedom Project. “We look forward to working with Microsoft to grow our nonprofit mission of saving animals from laboratories and hopefully in the future replacing animals with more modern forms of testing that save human and animal lives alike.”
This donation could not have come soon enough either because it is becoming mandatory for laboratories to hand these animals over to the rescue groups rather than automatically euthanize them. These laws are pending in states such as Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Nevada and California, while there is one already in effect in Minnesota.
Join us in supporting Beagle Freedom Project. To learn more about them and how they are saving the beagles ,check out their website at : http://www.beaglefreedomproject.org