By Laura Goldman From Care2

If it wasn’t for an undercover Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) investigation, 36 beagles would still be locked inside cages at the Charles River Laboratories in Michigan, forced each day to eat a new Corteva Agriscience fungicide.

Instead of suffering what must have been excruciating pain, those dogs are being put out of their misery.

No, no, they’re not all being euthanized, as Corteva, the agricultural division of Dow DuPont, had heartlessly planned to do to them when the study concluded in July. Thanks to the HSUS, Humane Society International and hundreds of thousands of outraged people around the world—more than 122,000 signed HSUS’ petition on Care2—those three dozen dogs are on their way to the Michigan Humane Society and will hopefully soon be adopted into the loving forever homes they deserve.

“This is the exact outcome we have been working toward for many months now, since our undercover investigator found these beagles being used for the test, and we are grateful to Dow AgroSciences (Corteva Agriscience) for making the right decision for the dogs,” HSUS President and CEO Kitty Block wrote on her blog March 28.

Although the United States hasn’t required this inhumane fungicide test for over a decade and Corteva Agriscience even admitted it was unnecessary, the company said it had to conduct it to meet a Brazilian regulatory requirement. This isn’t really true, however. Brazil’s pesticide authority, ANVISA, told the HSUS it will waive the test for companies that don’t want to conduct it. Even so, Corteva said it wouldn’t stop feeding the beagles the fungicide until it received industry-wide confirmation that it wasn’t required in Brazil.

Lo and behold, just six days after the HSUS released its disturbing Toxicity Testing on Dogs Exposed report, Corteva Agriscience announced it had received a waiver from ANVISA. It immediately ended the test and promised to make “every effort” to rehome the beagles.

According to a March 27 post on the HSUS Facebook page, Corteva had confirmed it wouldn’t release the beagles to the National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA), “a group linked to organizations that profit off of animal suffering,” the HSUS wrote.

If that had been the case, the beagles might have ended up in another laboratory. NAIA is “a front group and industry-funded lobbying organization” for “animal agribusiness, commercial breeding, hunting, fishing, trapping, fur ranching, animal testing, and animals in entertainment,” says SourceWatch, a website run by the national watchdog group,Center for Media and Democracy.

Fortunately, those beagles will never have to be tortured inside cages again. Like many of us, Block wrote that she is excited about the outcome and the future for these rescued dogs, who were all born at the lab and have never known life outside of a cage.

“They deserve the best futures they can possibly get, and we are thrilled for the role we have played in saving their lives and making this outcome happen for them,” Block wrote. Hear, hear.

Photo credit: Jim Leary/Flickr

For more on this story go to: https://www.care2.com/causes/success-beagles-in-fungicide-study-released-to-michigan-humane-society.html