Sanctuary Stories
The Rabbits Who Could Save Other Animals From Closed Labs
When universities shut down, labs close, and the animals caged there die. Beagle Freedom Project is trying to give them another chance.
When COVID-19 hit the US, universities across the country shut their doors. Shannon Keith, the president and founder of The Beagle Freedom Project, anticipated that would also include laboratories. “And we know that that means,” she says. “Usually that means they are just going to kill the animals. They aren’t going to take any time to try to find rescues to take them.” The Beagle Freedom Project is a non-profit organization that rescues, rehabs and re-homes a variety of animals from laboratories and shelters. “We’re always reaching out to laboratories in order to get them to release animals to us,” she says, “but this coronavirus has definitely changed things up.”
Indeed, according to animal rights group PETA, a number of universities across the US and Canada have been “calling on faculty to work on ‘reducing population numbers’ of animals in laboratories.”
