‘It shatters my heart’: the fosters taking care of stressed former lab beagles

Hundreds of people applied to adopt beagles from a breeding facility – but ‘these are not ordinary dogs’, says one rescue worker In May, 1,500 beagles were released from Ridglan Farms, a breeding and bioresearch facility near Madison, Wisconsin. The event made headlines. Soon, a deluge of tear-jerking videos followed, showing the lab beagles experiencing the outside world for the first time. Millions of people watched the dogs touching grass and instinctively paddling their paws at the sight of water. Immediately, the animal rescue organizations involved in the release were flooded with applications from people hoping to foster or adopt one of the dogs. “These are famous beagles! Everyone wants one,” says Shannon Keith, president and founder of the Beagle Freedom Project, which is helping place hundreds of the rescued dogs. “But they have to understand that these are not ordinary dogs, nor are they ordinary beagles.” The dogs were born and bred in the facility, says Keith. Many of them had never been outdoors, and “were quite frightened and shut down” when they were first brought out. “They have been through a lot,” she says. This article includes content prov