Last week, This Morning viewers voted for ‘Spike’ the beagle to become Emmerdale’s new canine star. Meanwhile, thousands of other beagles, just like Spike, are being bred for use in experiments at Harlan UK – the country’s last remaining beagle breeder.

It is because of animal lovers’ ignorance of the Harlan beagles’ short, tragic lives that campaigners will hold a national march in Cambridgeshire later this month – raising awareness of the cruelty our country inflicts on dogs like Spike, and to call for the immediate closure of Harlan’s two sites.

Everybody loves Spike

Earlier today, the British public named Spike the beagle as winner of ITV This Morning’s Dog for the Dales competition – securing the loveable dog a part in the popular soap Emmerdale.

In his ‘audition’ video, Spike’s owner Gemma, of Cheshire, said that viewers should vote for her pet because he was “intelligent but mischievous”.

Three dogs made it to the final but it was Spike who won both the voters and judges’ hearts.

Those who are familiar with the breed will not be surprised that Spike was deemed suited to life as a canine actor; beagles are well-known for their even-temper, fun yet placid nature – this is why they have, for centuries, been the dog of choice for vivisectors.

An example of the cruelty inflicted on beagles was exposed in the Daily Mirror in 1998. Pharmaceutical giants Pfizer tested an impotence drug on the breed; experiments which involved stripping the beagles' genitals open, inserting a needle, and then administering an electric shock.

The forgotten beagles of Harlan

Harlan is the last company in Britain breeding beagle dogs for the vivisection industry and owns two sites – one in Belton, Loughborough and the other at Wyton, Cambridgeshire.

In July 2011, Harlan’s Wyton site was the subject of a Sunday Times exposé in which it was revealed that the company’s ‘lab dogs’ are only given access to the outdoors for 20 MINUTES PER WEEK and exist in cramped, stimulus-free pens.

A former Harlan employee told the paper how he had witnessed staff members punching and kicking beagles in their care, shaving obscenities into their fur and daubing their faces with marker pen. The story explained how Harlan dogs not bought for experimentation are used as blood donors and have blood regularly drained from them and sold onto laboratories. ‘Non-conforming products’ (i.e. those dogs not meeting lab requirements) or those found surplus to market demand are routinely slaughtered.

"One of the trainers went into a pen and held down a dog with his knee. He was kicking the dog while he held her down to try to subdue her. Then he started punching her and then he held her up by the throat and said: ‘So are you going to stop?’” Ex-Harlan employee, Russell Trigg

Those deemed saleable are sold for £1-£2k (depending on age) to laboratories Huntingdon Life Sciences where – alongside other animal breeds – they are force fed drugs and chemicals, cut open, and ultimately die.

What’s more, these cruel experiments are not – as the public is often led to believe – always carried out to prolong human life. According to the Home Office, 86% of dogs involved in vivisection are used to test the toxicity of products such as paint, pesticides, food dyes and weed killers.

Meanwhile, cosmetic companies such as Avon and Estée Lauder have recently reneged on their ‘no testing’ policies and instead have admitted to bowing to foreign laws and ordering further research on animals – please see  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2104319/Avon-Est-e-Lauder-Peta-reveals-cosmetic-brands-ordered-animal-testing.html

Close down Harlan

Campaigners are fighting to have both Harlan sites closed down; not only for the sake of animal suffering but to protect human health too.

83% of GPs support an independent scientific evaluation into the efficacy of testing on animals whilst adverse reactions to prescription medicines (all tested safe on animals) are the fourth leading cause of death in the western world and cost the NHS around £466million a year. 92% of drugs fail at clinical trial stage – again, each ‘animal approved’.

The national march will take place on Saturday 17th March at 12 noon; starting outside Harlan’s Wyton site and moving onto the streets of St. Ives. For more information email  lisa-symonds@hotmail.co.uk

Find out more about Harlan and its history of abuse at  http://paw-little-rich-girl.blogspot.com/

Further viewing/reading:

This Morning’s promotional video of Spike the beagle can be found at  http://www.itv.com/thismorning/dog-for-the-dales/spike/

In the document The Coalition: Our Programme for Government, it states ‘we will end the testing of household products on animals and work to reduce the use of animals in scientific research’. In 2010, the number of animal experiments in the UK rose by 3%.

83% of GPs would support an independent scientific evaluation of the clinical relevance of animal experimentation. 82% were concerned that animal data can be misleading when applied to humans (figures taken from a survey commissioned by the patient advocacy group Europeans for Medical Progress  http://www.safermedicines.org/news.php?pid=64)

In January 2011 and following a countrywide public outcry and condemnation from high-profile celebrities such as Ricky Gervais and Brian May, B&K Universal – who had submitted plans to build the country’s largest beagle breeding facility in Grimston, Yorkshire – were refused planning permission the Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

Image courtesy of BUAV www.buav.org