In August 2023, the USDA inspected MRIGlobal, a well-funded contract research organization (“CRO”) in Kansas City, Missouri, and found four young beagles — identified only as GLV, GEV, FPV, and ETV — without any drinkable water.

The USDA inspector deemed this a violation of the Animal Welfare Act and even found it necessary to remind MRIGlobal’s attending veterinarian — who filled just one bowl while she watched — that “[w]ater is the most important element necessary for life and must always be accessible” (unless, of course, the lab claims to withhold this most important element necessary for life for some “research” reason).

Normally, we wouldn’t know exactly how these dogs came to find themselves in the clutches of vivisectors unconcerned with even their most basic care, but in their case we do: These dogs were sold to MRIGlobal by Ridglan Farms.

Wisconsin state records obtained and released last week confirm what the dogs’ cage cards state: in June 2023, Ridglan Farms sent these very 7-month-old puppies — GLV-2, GEV-2, FPV-2, and ETV-2, along with 22 others — to meet their ends at MRIGlobal. 

Photographs of these pups, separately obtained by Rise for Animals, may well be the only photographs that capture them in life — confined on bare metal floors, faces obscured by cage bars and plastic tags, already in the hands of those who would kill them. 

Because MRIGlobal is a private company, shielded from public records laws, we may never learn the details of what happened to these four beagles at MRIGlobal.

But, what was happening to other animals there during and around that same time paints a devastatingly clear picture of what we can expect.

The USDA’s August 2023 inspection documented multiple cases of animal suffering paired with human incompetence and indifference:

➡ MRIGlobal “terminated” 32 rabbits — identified only as “1-13 and 15-33” — after an improperly compounded, acidic solution was forced into their eyes.

The solution, which was not tested prior to use, caused irritation and damaged their corneas; the data was deemed worthless; and the animals were killed. An internal MRIGlobal record photographed by the USDA noted simply that the “study” would “need to be rerun”.

➡ MRIGlobal killed two female monkeys — identified only as “#1512524 & #1601460” — after incorrectly injecting them with “a test article” during a lethal dose study.

An internal MRIGlobal record photographed by the USDA makes clear that, even before these improper injections rendered them unable to “provide scientifically valid data” and resulted in them being killed, these victims endured years of unfathomable exploitation:

They “were extras on a study conducted in 2019–2020”.
They “received an experimental live attenuated bacterial vaccine in 2019”.
They “were also on a methamphetamine study later in 2020”.
They were “housed at MRIGlobal as training animals” for years. 

Then, when MRIGlobal no longer “needed” them, it tried to sell them off to primate dealers Worldwide Primates and PreLabs but neither was interested. So, to “obtain[] additional value from these animals”, MRIGlobal designed “a pilot study . . . to test the lethality of BoNT/A”, or Botulinum Toxin Type A, a neurotoxin used for various purposes and famous as Botox. It was this neurotoxin with which the monkeys were incorrectly injected about 12 hours before they were killed.

These are neither accidents nor isolated incidents. They are MRIGlobal’s — and the broader industry’s — business model.

Just like Ridglan Farms and other CROs, MRIGlobal profits from performing experiments for third-parties. In MRIGlobal’s case, these third-parties span private industry and government clients — to include the NIH (the world’s largest funder of animal research) and the Department of Defense — meaning that taxpayer dollars help sustain its operation. 

And, it’s a lucrative one: in 2023, MRIGlobal reported roughly $120 million in revenue and total assets on the order of $149 million . . . even while it claimed non-profit status.

The bottomline is that Ridglan Farms and MRIGlobal are typical animal-research-industry players running standard operations.

What sets Ridglan and MRIGlobal apart is only that their operations have come to public light more than others — and, together, they show us exactly what the system looks like from start to finish: from the breeding factory on one side, the laboratory cage on the other.

Every inspection record, every shipment record, every cage card tells the same fundamental story: animals reduced to inventory, made to suffer for money, then killed.

And, until this entire industry is dismantled, dogs just like GLV, GEV, FPV, and ETV, rabbits just like “1-13 and 15-33”, and monkeys just like “#1512524” and “#1601460” will continue to endure this fate.

Because suffering isn’t an exception in this industry. Suffering, perhaps more than anything else, defines this industry . . . from start to finish.

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