By Laura Goldman From Care2

Because of their sweet and docile personalities, beagles are sadly the breed of choice foranimal testing. Right now in a Michigan laboratory, 36 of these gentle dogs are enduring unimaginable cruelty: they’re being forced to swallow a fungicide in gelatin capsules.

The dogs that somehow manage to survive this torture will be killed when the study ends in July. The beagles’ organs will be removed and examined for any damage done by Coreteva Agriscience’s new fungicide, Adavelt. Coreteva Agriscience is a division of Dow AgroSciences.

This terrible experiment would likely have flown completely under the radar if it wasn’t for an undercover investigation by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). According to Toxicity Testing on Dogs Exposed, a report the HSUS released on March 12, Dow AgroSciences commissioned the laboratory to feed the beagles Adavelt for a year, “with some dogs being subjected to very high doses – so high that up to four capsules had to be shoved down their throats.”

Not only is this horribly cruel, but as the report points out, it does not at all mimic how humans would ingest Adavelt.

It’s not just those 36 beagles that are suffering inside Charles River Laboratories. From April to August 2018, the HSUS investigator observed dogs in nearly 24 long- and short-term experiments. Most of the dogs were killed afterward. The experiments were on behalf of Dow as well as two other companies, Paredox Therapeutics and Above and Beyond NB LLC.

A pretty shocking statistic in the report is that more than 60,000 dogs in the United States are being subjected to cruel tests by Dow and other for-profit companies, as well as universities and taxpayer-funded government facilities, like VA medical centers.

Subjecting tens of thousands of dogs to these terrible experiments doesn’t necessarily lead to healthier lives for humans. Studies show that 95 percent of drugs fail in humans, including ones that were tested on animals. It’s the 21st century after all, and modern technology is eliminating any need for live animal testing. Humane alternatives, such assynthetic cadaver dogs, are already available.

The HSUS and Humane Society International (HSI) have been working for months to make Dow end its cruel fungicide test and to release the beagles, so they can find loving homes. The U.S. government actually stopped requiring this test over a decade ago, after scientists realized it doesn’t provide any worthwhile information. Most countries have done the same, thanks to the efforts of HSI in cooperation with members of the industry—including Dow, which has even admitted the test is unnecessary.

So why is Dow’s Corteva Agriscience still conducting this cruel and unnecessary test?

The company claims it must do so to meet a Brazilian regulatory requirement. However, Brazil’s pesticide authority, ANVISA, told the HSUS it has no problem granting waiver requests from companies that don’t want to conduct the test. At Dow’s request, ANVISA then sent a formal, written version of this policy to the entire Brazilian pesticide industry. Yet the fungicide test at Charles River Laboratories continues because, according to a statement by Corteva Agriscience, the ANVISA letter is not “definitive.” It said it would immediately end the test once the industry gets confirmation that it’s no longer required.

By the time the industry gets that confirmation, every one of those 36 beagles will likely be dead.

If you can bear to watch it, Care2 have a video that HSUS investigators took that shows some of the dogs undergoing horrific experiments at Charles River Laboratories. (Rest in peace, sweet Harvey, now that you’re finally free of pain.)

TAKE ACTION

• Please sign and share this petition telling Dow’s Corteva Agriscience to stop this test and release the dogs to the HSUS so they can find loving homes.
• Boycott Dow AgroSciences products as well as other products that are unnecessarily tested on animals.

For more on this story and video go to: https://www.care2.com/causes/dozens-of-beagles-are-being-force-fed-a-fungicide-in-unnecessary-study.html