Rescue Group Shuts Down Animal Testing Lab and Plans to Make It a Sanctuary for Former Lab Pets

The Beagle Freedom Project is reworking a 30-acre property in Oklahoma that was an animal testing facility into Freedom Fields

• The Beagle Freedom Project shut down an animal testing facility in Oklahoma in February and bought the property surrounding the lab

  

• The animal welfare organization is planning to show the 30-acre property right into a sanctuary and adoption middle for pets rescued from animal testing

• Over 200 pets utilized in testing on the Oklahoma facility are actually within the Beagle Freedom Project’s care and are on the lookout for endlessly properties

Over 200 cats and dogs are getting a contemporary begin in a well-recognized place.

In February, Beagle Freedom Project (BFP)— an animal welfare organization devoted to saving lab animals and ending animal testing —shut down a personal facility in Nowata, Oklahoma, performing exams on cats and dogs for the flea and tick medication business.

Beagle Freedom Project took over the previous lab’s 30-acre property and the greater than 200 animals remaining on the premises. The organization is now reworking the property into Freedom Fields, a sanctuary and adoption middle for the previous lab animals on the facility and future pets rescued from animal testing.

For Shannon Keith, who based the Beagle Freedom Project in 2010, Freedom Fields is successful story that was onerous to think about 13 years in the past.

When Keith began BFP, “the established order was that amenities would usually kill animals on the finish of testing,” she tells PEOPLE. Through Beagle Freedom Project’s work, tons of of lab animals slated to die have been rescued and adopted out to loving households. The organization has additionally handed its “signature laws,” the Beagle Freedom Bill, in 13 states and is engaged on passing federal legislation.

“What that does is mandate the discharge of animals after the testing is over. So as a substitute of killing them, they launch them to organizations like ours, so that they have a second probability at life,” Keith explains.

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Keith, an animal rights lawyer, does not depend on laws alone to avoid wasting animals utilized in product testing. Each yr, she writes a letter to each operational animal testing facility within the United States, asking them to launch their animals to the Beagle Freedom Project.

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While Keith says it is “very uncommon” she will get a response, one in all these letters led the Beagle Freedom Project to the property that may finally turn out to be Freedom Fields.

“This facility in Oklahoma, the proprietor of it lastly known as me, and he stated, ‘Hey, I received your letter. I really received it a few years in the past.’ And he stated, ‘I ignored your letter,'” Keith says.

What modified the power proprietor’s thoughts had been citations from the USDA. The company inspired the proprietor to contact Beagle Freedom Project to give up the dogs and assist clear up a few of the citations.

“To his credit score, he known as us, and we began working with him in 2021. And so, we began going there, and every time he was carried out with dogs and cats, we might get them and undertake them out,” Keith shares.

This relationship allowed Keith to pitch shutting down the testing facility and buying the property to the proprietor when she felt the time was proper.

“I steered he shut his business and that we buy the land from him, not the business, however the land. It’s an exquisite 30 acres. We would flip it right into a sanctuary, and he’d be carried out with it. And I actually thought that he would snort me off the telephone,” Keith remembers of the dialog.

To her shock, the proprietor was able to retire and agreed to the Beagle Freedom Project’s proposition.

Related: Rescue Beagle Is ‘Excited About Absolutely Everything’ One Year After Leaving Breeding Facility

“Part of our negotiations was that he would relinquish his USDA license and by no means take a look at on animals once more. We had no half in paying for the business; the business is over. We bought the property and took all of the animals he would launch to our custody. So we received 200 plus dogs and cats. He agreed, and we formally took custody of everyone and the land on February 1st,” Keith explains.

After the sale, the Beagle Freedom Project began engaged on making Freedom Fields a actuality. Currently, a BFP worker lives on the property with the previous lab animals who’ve but to be adopted.

The animals got here into Beagle Freedom Project’s care with burns on their our bodies and well being points from being uncovered to the poisonous substances utilized in testing for flea and tick prevention medicines — and so they additionally got here able to be beloved. Over 30 animals from the Oklahoma testing facility have already discovered endlessly properties, and extra are nonetheless trying to find their households.

“Our purpose is to get all of them adopted out. In the meantime, they’re residing there, and we’re within the strategy of renovating and making it an exquisite place for them to dwell till they’re adopted,” Keith says.

Plans for turning the previous testing facility into Freedom Fields embrace including a rehabilitation middle for animals recovering from the abuse they endured throughout testing and a senior middle for the quite a few ageing pets rescued from animal testing.

“The majority of dogs utilized in testing had been born there, so they have been there their entire lives, and so they’ve received arthritis, cataracts, and all types of illnesses. They want their tooth pulled. They’re in ache. So we’re building a senior middle to allow them to have orthopedic beds, ramps, and warmth, all types of comforts they need to have till they’re adopted,” Keith particulars.

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Freedom Fields will not simply be for pets. Keith says that BFP plans so as to add an schooling middle to the sanctuary “the place folks can meet animal testing survivors, find out about animal testing, and discover ways to care for animals correctly and be type to animals.”

“It’s one factor to listen to me blabber on about animal testing, however once you meet a survivor in person, and also you look of their eyes, it is one thing that actually melts your coronary heart and makes you need to do one thing impactful,” she provides.

Keith hopes that information of Freedom Fields conjures up animal lovers to study extra concerning the grim actuality of animal testing.

“I might simply love folks to know and concentrate on the merchandise that they are utilizing, not just for themselves but in addition for his or her beloved animals, who’re relations,” she says.

To assist with this purpose, BFP has developed the free Cruelty Cutter app, which permits customers to scan a product’s barcode and study if animal testing was used to create the product.

To study extra concerning the Beagle Freedom Project, visit the organization’s website.

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