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Humane Fort Wayne takes in 25 beagles rescued from mass-breeding facility

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Ella Abbott
/
WBOI
One of the newly rescued beagles sniffs at the door of his kennel at Humane Fort Wayne's adoption center on Friday, August 19, 2022. The beagles will need to be assessed for both medical and behavioral concerns before they can be adopted out. Many haven't been socialized at all in the year since they were born.

Humane Fort Wayne has taken in 25 beagles, rescued from a mass-breeding facility in Virginia earlier this year. The beagles arrived at the shelter late Thursday night and have already begun the intake process to get them ready for adoption.

Humane Fort Wayne had already received 50 applications to adopt the beagles by Friday morning, after the dogs traveled all day on Thursday to make it safely to Fort Wayne.

The beagles are only a small portion of the 4,000 rescued from the facility in Cumberland, VA, which bred the dogs to then be sold to laboratories for experimentation.

Following a lawsuit filed against Envigo RMS LLC, the mass-breeding facility, by the U.S. Department of Justice in May, the Humane Society of the United States assumed responsibility for transferring the dogs to shelters around the country.

Two volunteers bathe one of the newly rescued beagles following his medical assessment on Friday, August 19, 2022. The dogs were part of a mass rescue of 4,000 beagles from a breeding facility in Virginia.
Ella Abbott
/
WBOI
Two volunteers bathe one of the newly rescued beagles following his medical assessment on Friday, August 19, 2022. The dogs were part of a mass rescue of 4,000 beagles from a breeding facility in Virginia.

Melissa Gibson is the community relations manager for Humane Fort Wayne. She said as soon as the news about the beagles rescue broke, they were getting calls about if they would be getting some.

“We actually weren’t allowed to disclose at any time, right up until the animals were actually in our possession, whether we were getting them, when we were getting them,” Gibson said.

Now that they have the dogs, it could still be a long road to adoption for some of them.

“These dogs have lived in their cages for their whole life," Gibson said. "They’ve not walked on leash, they’ve not felt grass between their toes. They don’t know how to 'dog'.”

The beagles are all 1-year old males. They’ve already begun getting their medical assessments done, and about a week after their arrival, they’ll be neutered.

But they’ll also need to be assessed for behavior. In the shelter, some of the dogs have yet to venture out of their small travel crates into their larger kennel area. Animal behaviorists at the clinic will need to learn each dog's needs before they’re ready for adoption.

“It’s gonna take us a little bit of time to make sure that each one of these guys is cared for the way that they need to be,” Gibson said.

Gibson said they may get more of the beagles in the future, but it’s not a guarantee.

Ella Abbott is a multimedia reporter for 89.1 WBOI. She is a strong believer in the ways audio storytelling can engage an audience and create a sensory experience.