Fourteen pigs are leaving a research laboratory behind. 

Today, the rescue effort “Mission PigPossible” is underway to transport 14 minipigs from a lab in the Midwest to an animal sanctuary states away. 

We can’t share all the details—the origin lab must remain confidential, and we’re being careful not to disclose information that could interfere with the animals’ safe transport. 

We can share the most important part, though: These pigs are getting out. 

Rise for Animals has committed $15,000 to help make their rescue possible. 

Help Us Free Animals from Labs

The Costs of Freeing Animals From the Lab

A rescue like this can come together quickly, but the logistics are a huge undertaking. 

In this case, 14 pigs need safe transportation over a long distance. That means vehicles, fuel, crates, tarps, straps, food, water, and supplies for the journey. Volunteers need to travel with them and care for them along the way. When the pigs arrive, the sanctuary needs appropriate spaces ready to receive them. 

Then comes veterinary care. These minipigs will need medical evaluation and treatment as they settle into sanctuary life. Some procedures are expected to be costly, with estimates of potential spay or neuter expenses as high as $1,500 per pig.  

The trip itself adds up, too. Estimates for this rescue include more than $2,300 in fuel, plus hundreds of dollars in food, water, transportation supplies, vehicle costs, and cleaning. 

Beyond the Cash Expenses

Some amazing volunteers have stepped forward to donate vans, crates, airfare, and their own time. These contributions would otherwise add thousands more dollars to the cost of getting these animals safely home. 

It takes a lot of people, resources, planning, and generosity to move 14 pigs from a laboratory to freedom. 

What Comes Next

We don’t know everything these minipigs experienced in the lab and we may never find out. But we do know what awaits them now: 

Fresh air. Soft bedding. Sunlight. 
Room to walk, root, explore, and rest.
The companionship of other pigs.
And the chance to simply be pigs—not research subjects.

That makes today’s rescue extraordinary. It also underscores something we confront every day in our work: There are animals inside labs right now whose futures could change if the opportunity arose—and if someone were ready to act. 

When an Opportunity for Freedom Arises, We Want to Be Ready

We work to end animal experimentation, full stop. 

We expose what happens inside laboratories. We investigate the institutions and businesses profiting from animal research. We challenge the people and policies that perpetuate animal experimentation. We fight public funding of research that exploits animals, we advocate for non-animal science, and we push for a future where no animal suffers, trapped in a lab. 

And sometimes our work also presents us with something immediate: an animal who can get out now.

When that happens, we don’t want funding to be the reason we have to say no. 

That’s why we committed $15,000 to Mission PigPossible.

It’s also why the support of people like you matters so much. Your gift today gives us the flexibility to respond when an urgent opportunity appears—while continuing the broader fight to dismantle the system that puts animals in labs to begin with. 

Fund the Fight to End Animal Experimentation

Today, 14 minipigs are getting a different future. We want the same for every dog, monkey, rabbit, pig, mouse, rat, cat, and other animal still trapped in the research industry.  

Until then, we’ll keep fighting to get animals out, and to close the door behind them for good. 

Give a Gift