LOS ANGELES, CA–(Marketwired – Feb 14, 2017) – Beagle Freedom Project (BFP), the renowned non-profit national, animal rescue and advocacy organization, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). BFP, along with five other animal advocacy groups, are challenging the USDA-APHIS to restore the Animal Abuse Registry, an online database of records related to puppy mills, laboratories, roadside zoos, traveling animal shows, and other enterprises that use and exploit helpless animals. It was earlier this month that, without warning,…
Category: In The Press
How the USDA Records Removal Impacts the Beagle Freedom Project’s Important Work
By removing public access to animal welfare records, the USDA has made it much harder for the BFP and other organizations to rescue and rehome animals in need. A digital filing cabinet stuffed with inspection reports, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s animal welfare data, was unlocked and open to the public — until last Friday. Many had no reason to peruse the now inaccessible documents, but those who viewed them frequently say dogs and other animals are at risk if they can’t. “Our organization uses this database almost on a daily…
USDA Information Blackout a Call to Action For Animal Welfare Nonprofits
Animal welfare organizations were stunned and outraged Friday when the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) removed animal welfare inspection reports, enforcement records, and other information about the treatment of animals from its website, citing privacy and other laws. The move rolls back decades of hard-fought wins from groups like Farm Sanctuary and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), who worked to increase transparency and get information into the hands of consumers who could then vote with their wallet and feet when commercial dog breeders, zoos, and research…
USDA Scrubs Public Animal Welfare Records From Website
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has removed a slew of animal welfare data — including inspection records for institutions like zoos, laboratories and commercial breeders — from its website. Previously, anyone could use a search tool on the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website to look up such information. The general public, as well as animal advocacy groups and journalists, could use the search function to see whether facilities had violated animal welfare regulations. USDA APHIS attributed the change to concerns about privacy, adding in its announcement on…
Beagle Freedom Project Offers to Settle Mizzou Litigation — for $1 and an Adoption Plan
A group of animal-loving advocates has a deal for Mizzou. Beagle Freedom Project, the California-based non-profit suing the University of Missouri over an $82,000 bill for public records related to the care of animals used in medical research, says the university could face up to $900,000 in fines, plus attorney fees and costs, over its Sunshine law missteps. But the non-profit will settled the suit with Mizzou for just $1 — provided the university agrees to work with it to safeguard the animals’ well-being. Among its demands? That Mizzou develop…
University of Missouri Researchers Blinded Puppies Before Euthanization
COLUMBIA, MO (KSHB) — The University of Missouri acknowledges its researchers took part in a medical study that included wounding six beagle puppies before they were all euthanized. The study was published in the medical journal Veterinary Ophthalmology on April 7. It says six healthy, female beagle puppies (9-12 months) were wounded in their left corneas; three were then given an experimental drug and the other three received the control product without the acid. The result of the study concluded the topical drug “did not accelerate corneal wound healing.” ‘Optimend…
Mizzou Researchers Sued for Blinding, Killing Beagles in Failed Experiment
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMOX) – Another controversy at Mizzou — a rescue organization is suing researchers at the University of Missouri – Columbia who purposely blinded six beagles and then killed them after the project failed. The deaths of the dogs came to light after the Los Angeles-based Beagle Freedom Project, a non-profit that finds homes for animals who survive medical research, sued the university for attempting to charge the group an estimated $82,000 to make copies of its current research projects. While waiting on the suit, Kevin Chase, Beagle Freedom…
Researchers Under Fire for Study That Ended with 6 Beagles Dead
The study was published online in April, but the fallout is hitting now: University of Missouri-Columbia researchers are trying to identify “painless or non-invasive treatments for corneal injuries,” and devised a pilot study using six beagles to that end. The researchers wanted to study the effects of topical hyaluronic acid on corneal ulcers; under sedation, the dogs’ left corneas were wounded (the New York Daily News reports this blinded them in that eye), with half the group then acting as control and half administered the acid. Per the study, posted…
University of Missouri Researchers Blinded, Killed Six Beagles for Inconclusive Study
Six puppies were blinded for a University of Missouri-Columbia study, and then killed after the results were inconclusive. In a study published on April 7, four researchers at the university were looking to find the effects of topical hyaluronic acid to heal eye damage in dogs for its pilot study. After the six beagles — all less than a year old — were purposely blinded in their left eyes, the researchers split them up into two different groups, one that received the acid for treatment, and one that didn’t. Neither…
Mizzou Slaughtered Six Beagles After Research Project
A quartet of professors at the University of Missouri-Columbia purposefully blinded six beagles — and then killed them after the research they were conducting failed to heal their wounded corneas. That’s according to a paper published in the 2016 Journal of Veterinary Opthamology, which details the ineffective treatment and the dogs’ untimely end. The pups were just nine to twelve months at the time they endured the experiment and then were killed. Dan Kolde is a St. Louis-based attorney for the Beagle Freedom Project, which seeks to rescue and protect the…