Our dying companions, focus on the fate of dogs in laboratories

A lifetime behind bars

These young puppies destined for laboratories are born in concrete kennels. Some of them are born “programmed” to endure tests: genetically modified or selected to develop diseases, they are bred only to become living test tubes. Considered as products or equipment, locked up, with no social contact or affection.

Since its creation, One Voice has been fighting against these breeding farms, such as those run by Marshall BioResources (MBR) in Gannat and Mézilles, France.

Once transported to the laboratories, their daily lives remain the same: small, cold cubicles and constant isolation to the point of insanity.

Condemned to an existence devoid of everything that makes them dogs, they gradually sink into distress: some become apathetic, others go round in endless circles, but nobody cares.

For the researchers, these behaviors are merely a side-effect of the protocols, mere collateral damage. How they feel is irrelevant: what matters is that the experiment should run its course. So, when the trials come to an end, the solution is obvious. Instead of trying to rehabilitate them by giving them a second chance, we eliminate them. Unadapted to life outside the kennels, too traumatized to find a family, they are put to death with no other alternative.

Out of the cage: painful, often fatal experiences

The rare moments when these dogs, generally beagles – because they are the most docile and affectionate, a specificity of which MBR has made its fortune – leave their cells, are not synonymous with respite. On the contrary, they are taken to the protocol room to undergo all kinds of tests. Some have their blood taken sixteen times in twenty-four hours – in other words, every 90 minutes! Others will be locked in metabolic cages where they can barely move for 48 hours, just to collect their urine, which will be used to measure the toxicity of the new drugs. 

To assess the effectiveness of new vaccines, the dogs will be infected with a virus that causes convulsions, unbearable abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting. Pus will flow from their noses, and their skin will not be spared either.

After years of forced terror, these beagles that have been used for a single vaccine are killed as a “safety measure”. They generally end their lives in the freezers of the laboratories that exploited them, before being incinerated like toxic waste, their existence reduced to “scientific use”.

The figures are not in their favor…

Although 3 out of 4 French people are opposed to animal experimentation, 2,200 of the 8,709 dogs used throughout the European Union died in French laboratories in 2022 (latest figures published). 

In short, our country has retained its title of torturer-in-chief. In October 2024, a single project condemned 2,000 dogs to test the toxicology of a drug. In contradiction with the reduction requirements of the European directive…

Despite the Ministry’s countless false pretences, which still fail to distinguish between the number of animals used for the first time in research and those reused, we continue to analyze the dozens of projects it authorizes every day in order to denounce the sham transparency it presents to us. As a result, we are eagerly awaiting the figures for 2023, and will not be satisfied with the report presented to the public. As we do every year, we have requested the raw data files from the MESR to continue our fight against the opacity associated with animal experimentation. 

Act now to help us put an end to experimentation on dogs: sign our petition and demand their protection!