A video has been published showcasing the well-being and regulations involved in the breeding of dogs for scientific research in the UK, at the facility of EARA member Marshall Bioresources (MBR).
The six-minute video produced by the UK advocacy group Understanding Animal Research (UAR), also an EARA member, features the breeding facility MBR Acres, in Cambridgeshire. It highlights the care given to the beagles housed there and their access to play areas to ensure mental and physical stimulation.
It also details how pregnant dogs are carefully monitored to ensure the health of the mother and her litter, with improved housing conditions close to delivery and during whelping.
MBR Acres and its staff have been the long-term focus of animal rights activists, who maintain a long-standing protest outside the facility and have called for the dogs to be rehomed.
The video ends by emphasising the importance of dog research in safety testing for new drugs, accurately predicting safety outcomes up to 96% of the time, and contributing to medical advances such as insulin and the heart defibrillator. See further information about MBR Acres.
Although dogs represent 0.2% of overall animal research in the UK, their use remains necessary for certain types of research, and is conducted under stringent ethical guidelines and enforced by the UK Home Office.
See also the EARA feature on why dogs are used in biomedical research.