Our friends at U.K.-based animal protection group Camp Beagle have graciously shared the below video with us, to share with you. If you’re reading this in the U.K, please help support Camp Beagle’s tireless work against the exploitation of dogs and all other animals who are used in research and testing. 

Is this déjà vu? Unfortunately, no. This is history repeating.

A new whistleblower has stepped forward to expose the torment of beagles at Marshall BioResources. This time, a video shows beagles who are being trained to wear facial masks in preparation for their future lives in laboratories.

The video, embedded below, focuses on one beagle, visibly distressed and writhing against the restraints of a short leash, no more than two feet long. A black mask muzzles the dog’s mouth and nose, and even covers the dog’s eyes. The mask is intended to train the dog into submission. 

Video courtesy of Camp Beagle

This disturbing footage provides a rare glimpse into the brutal practices behind the scenes at Marshall, one of the world’s largest breeders of dogs and other animals born to suffer at the hands of researchers. 

Making this footage even more haunting is how reminiscent it is of the iconic “smoking beagles” exposé from nearly 50 years ago. 

In 1975, British journalist Mary Beith went undercover to reveal the horrors of animal testing in a U.K. lab, where beagles were forced to inhale cigarette smoke in cruel experiments designed to test “safe” cigarettes. Beith’s investigative work — particularly the iconic image that she captured — horrified animal-lovers across the globe.

If you are unfamiliar with the “smoking beagles” story, Beith’s brave work brought public attention to the egregious treatment of animals in labs. 

“Their heads were restrained by locking boards in place like medieval stocks . . . The dogs were then lifted onto trolleys to the smoking platforms and the masks, valves and tubes were fixed to their faces.” 

— Mary Beith

In the experiment Beith photographed, beagles — who are chosen as “lab dogs” for their gentle temperament — were locked into place, their heads forced into masks that pumped smoke directly into their lungs. Some were forced to endure up to 30 cigarettes a day. 

Nearly five decades later, the parallels between the “smoking beagles” and the masked beagles at Marshall are impossible to ignore. 

Like the beagles in 1975, the dog in the 2024 video is restrained, masked, and forced to endure trauma for experiments. The dogs’ fear and confusion are evident.

This new whistleblower video serves as a stark reminder that, despite the progress we’ve made, animals are still used by the research industry and still suffering under horrendous conditions.

We cannot allow history to keep repeating itself. The time to act is now.

Just as the “smoking beagles” sparked a movement to question the ethics of animal testing, this new video must do the same. We urge you to take action today and stand up for these beagles and for the millions of other animals who are being exploited in the animal research industry.

Urge your legislators to do two things: investigate Marshall BioResources and support the FDA Modernization Act 3.0, a federal bill which has great potential to boost ethical, human-relevant science. Let’s make sure that in another fifty years, we’re not still seeing animals being masked and tortured for the sake of outdated and unnecessary experiments. 

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