GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The U.S. Humane Society is continuing its work to get animals out of laboratory testing after a group of beagles were released from a Mattawan lab.
“First of all, it’s a huge sense of relief that the dogs are out of the laboratory where we revealed they were being used in pesticide tests that was completely unnecessary,” said Kathleen Conlee, vice president of research issues for the U.S. Humane Society. “We’re thankful to the company Corteva for agreeing to stop the tests and release the dogs.
“We’re just thankful to Michigan Humane Society for just talking those dogs in and helping them with the next chapter of their lives and getting into loving homes after everything they’ve been through.”
Looking forward, Conlee said the organizations will be looking for perfect matches for each of the dogs that was a part of the testing. Because of the way they were bred, it will take some time for the beagles to adjust being in a home.
However, she says the Humane Society has seen dogs that came from a lab become great companions for a family.
Conlee said the Humane Society asked Corteva to promise they won’t ever perform the one-year pesticide test again, but haven’t received that commitment.
“We do hope they will make such a commitment. Unfortunately, there are dog-required testing for other pesticides in the country of the United States,” she said. “We want to see our government replacing or eliminating these kinds of tests. There’s a lot more to do with pesticides testing and so much more.”
The Humane Society was pleased wit the amount of public support it received on the issue and Conlee said they hope to receive it during the effort end lab testing on dogs.
“I knew the public would be very engaged on this issue and be very concerned when they learned — I don’t think that many knew that dogs are used in laboratories,” Conlee said. “The outpouring of support was incredible. We had 500,000 people, within a couple of days, sign a petition asking for this specific test that Corteva was carrying out to be stopped and for those dogs to be released.”
