On your visits to Lovable Pets, perhaps you have met Marty and Eddie. Marty is a lemon beagle and Eddie is a half-beagle with no hair. Both were adopted by Ellie Hansen, owner of Lovable Pets. Both were rescued from scientific research laboratories.
We know that Marty came from a pharmaceutical research laboratory in Colorado where he was used to test human drugs. He was there for six years. His first glimpse of sun, sky, or green grass was on the day he was rescued.
Eddie’s background is slightly more blurred. All we know is he came from a laboratory on the east coast somewhere and was used for food chemical testing. Eddie was in the laboratory for over eight years.
55,000 Dogs Remain in Research Laboratories
Many people don’t know that dogs are still used for scientific research. Mostly beagles. Mostly to test human drugs and chemicals.
Human drugs are often tested on dogs in doses hundreds of times stronger than is ever given humans—making the suffering the dogs endure in these tests a real ethical concern. Not surprisingly, few dogs survive.
Chemicals, such as pesticides, are also force-fed to dogs. Companies want to make sure they know what will happen to bodily organs if someone were to drink weed killer, for example.
While our heads are full of numbers and facts these days, there is an important number to remember: 55,000. There are 55,000 dogs in research laboratories today in the United States. It’s hard to imagine.
A Woman on a Mission
Since she adopted Marty and Eddie, Ellie has made it her mission to help dogs in laboratories. While the reason dogs are used in research is “complicated,” Ellie is raising awareness and educating people on the issue. Knowledge is power, right?
In June Ellie was awarded a contract to write a book for a publishing company, McFarland and Co. Publishers. They have a series called “Dogs In Our World” and they invited Ellie to write a book on dogs in research labs. Her book is titled Laboratory Dogs Rescued: From Test Subjects to Beloved Companions. It is now available from McFarland Books or on Amazon.
The book includes fascinating interviews with world-renowned scientists working to replace dogs in labs with more humane and human-specific technology. It also includes heartwarming rescue and adoption stories of 30 dogs rescued from laboratories and the families who adopted them. Lovable Pets has in part made the writing of this book possible.
So as always, thank you for your support and, most of all, for loving your animals!