RALEIGH, N.C. — Dozens of beagles that are in North Carolina foster homes are now ready for adoption through Triangle Beagle Rescue. The dogs are among the almost 4,000 beagles that were recently taken from a mass-breeding facility in Virginia where they were set to be sold to laboratories for animal experiments.
What You Need To Know
Almost 4,000 beagles were recently taken from a mass-breeding facility in Virginia
Dozens of those beagles are now up for adoption through Triangle Beagle Rescue
All of the dogs are in foster homes where they are getting comfortable with things like toys and leashes
Tinamaria Gnolfo Savarese is the foster lead for Triangle Beagle Rescue and has been volunteering with the organization since 2009. She and her husband already have several adopted dogs of their own, but they didn’t think twice about welcoming one more into their home: Gambit.
Gambit is one of the dogs taken from the Envigo RMS, LLC facility in Cumberland, Virginia, which bred dogs to be sold to laboratories for animal experimentation.
“He’s like, 'what is this?' or he’s distracted or he’s just getting used to that whole different types of food instead of the typical food that they were fed,” Savarese said.
Gambit looks healthy, but he wasn’t exposed to a lot of things at the facility that affected his behavior, Savarese said.
“Their hair is all intact. They really don’t have any calluses, but the emotional intelligence isn’t there," she said.
Gambit is learning a lot from Savarese’s other dogs, including how to play with toys.
“It’s really fun to watch the dogs play with a toy for the first time when they have never been introduced to one,” Savarese said.
Savarese is also teaching Gambit how to be comfortable with a leash.
“I think it just makes him freeze at this point. It freaks him out,” Savarese said. “And why is someone telling me to go this way and why is this thing pulling on me this way?”
Gambit was given a blue tattoo on the inside of his ear at the facility, and it serves as proof that his past will always be with him.
“That is the tattoo that’s basically his name. What they do is they have a location, so Cumberland, and then it would usually be a number like how many dogs were in the litter,” Savarese said.
Gambit has a name now and is learning that he can trust the people who take care of him because as much as he’s learning from Savarese, she says we can also learn a lot from dogs.
“They teach me how to live. They live in the moment. They are very forgiving, and they give unconditional love,” Savarese said.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, dogs are used to test the safety of drugs, medical devices and pesticides. The Humane Society says laboratories reported having almost 44,000 dogs in their possession in 2021, and about 900 dogs were used for experiments in North Carolina last year.
To learn more about adopting any of the beagles, visit the Triangle Beagle Rescue website.