Today is National Dogs in Politics Day, and, even though it most explicitly celebrates U.S. presidents’ dogs, we at Rise agree with Kirstin Hitchcock of Dogster that the occasion can – and, we would argue, should! – be used “to celebrate just about any canine involved in politics”!

As agents of political change, dogs have long motivated humans to engage in the political process – something very much on display today.

Though the U.S. has yet to welcome the formal political representation of animals, the domestic animal protection movement is fortunate to have amazing human advocates doing their very best to represent animals’ interests within the human political sphere – including as it pertains to the animal research industry.

Often, these amazing advocates are both motivated and accompanied by those who they are (informally but zealously) representing: canine survivors of the animal research industry.

Over the past year, for example, animal research survivors have joined humans in state and federal lobbying, constituent petitioning, and public demonstrating:

• A “trio of beagles roamed the halls of” Pennsylvania’s state Capital “doing some canine lobbying for legislation that would crack down on the breeding and use of animals for research and testing purposes.”
• Beagles gathered on Capitol Hill in support of the Better Collaboration, Accountability, and Regulatory Enforcement (CARE) for the Animals Act!
• Uno, one of the 4,000 beagles rescued from Envigo, visited Capitol Hill to “meet lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who rallied around the concept of the humane treatment of animals.”
• Cedric, another one of the 4,000 beagles rescued from Envigo, joined in delivering “a petition to end harmful dog research” to the Texas Governor.
• Lab survivors Teddy and Ellie punctuated their guardians’ push for the passage of state legislation to protect dogs in research.
• Rescued beagles participated in a protest against Marshall BioResources, the country’s largest breeder of dogs for animal research.

We join in celebrating – and giving thanks for – such interspecies political advocacy, and we hope that the future will see more and more political action for, and together with(!), other-than-human animals.

You can learn fascinating facts about beagles here, or take action to protect animals with “Beagle Bill” legislation in your state here. 

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