“It will take 60 days to get all of these animals out and work with our foster and rescue partners across the country, working with them to get these dogs to a forever loving home,” said Kitty Block, president and chief. executive of the Humane Society of the USA.
Shelters from South Elgin, Illinois to Pittsburgh have begun receiving the dogs, who will receive medical exams, vaccinations and other treatments before they are available for adoption.
In May, the US Department of Justice sued Envigo RMS LLC alleging violations of the Animal Welfare Act at the Cumberland, Virginia facility. In June, parent company Inotiv Inc. he said he would close the facility. In July, Envigo settled with the government, without paying any fines.
Inotiv did not respond to a request for comment.
Government inspectors found that beagles were being killed instead of receiving care for easily treatable conditions; nursing mothers were denied food; the food they received contained worms, mold and excrement; and over an eight-week period, 25 beagle puppies died from exposure to the cold, the Humane Society said in a statement. Some were injured when attacked by other dogs in crowded conditions, he added.
The beagle rescue effort began much earlier, according to Bill Stanley, Republican state senator for Virginia. “I tried to shut them down in 2019, but I didn’t succeed. But over the years, we didn’t stop fighting.”