This morning, activists from Animal Rebellion filmed themselves breaking into an animal testing facility and freeing 18 Beagles, reported Evening Standard.
Rescuing the Beagles
In the footage, the group, associated with environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion, use a saw to cut through a security gate at the facility in Cambridgeshire in the UK at 5 am today (Dec. 20).
One activist pulls himself up over a high fence before doing a front flip into a cage full of Beagles. He then picks them up and gives them to his colleagues.
They then handed themselves into police, but only after successfully smuggling 16 puppies out. They said they “will now get to spend their first Christmas with loving new families”.
However, police confiscated two more Beagles, Love and Libby. The group said that the police are currently holding them in the back of a police car. Action Network say that the puppies are considered ‘contaminated property’ and will be killed if they aren’t released. They have launched a petition to release the dogs to a sanctuary.
Plenty of Controversy
The MBR Acres facility, owned by US-based Marshall BioResources, is controversial. Celebrities like comedian Ricky Gervais and singer Will Young have previously called for it to be closed down. Young even handcuffed himself to the facility’s gates in November last year.
A petition to close the facility down has amassed almost 25,000 signatures, while protestors set up a camp, Camp Beagle, outside the facility, last July.
Also last July, burglary charges were dropped against 12 people after two break-ins at the facility.
MBR breeds around 1,600 to 2,000 Beagles each year and the dogs are brought to animal testing labs around the country when they’re around 16 weeks old. They say that they adhere to high animal welfare standards, and an inspection last June found no breaches of legislation or codes.
