Forty male beagles raised inside a lab in Spain arrived in Los Angeles last week where they will be put up for adoption after being freed from captivity by the Beagle Freedom Project.
The rescue mission is the largest yet for the group Animal Rescue Media Education (ARME). A total of 72 dogs were rescued in the effort, 32 of them having already been adopted in Europe, according to NBC Los Angeles.
ARME's Beagle Freedom Project spokesman Gary Smith said the beagles, all between ages 4 and 7, had lived in cages their entire lives.
"We've been told they lived one per cage in rooms of 10 beagles, but they never had any physical interaction with one another," Smith told the station. "They've been in kennels since they were rescued about a week ago, but aside from that, they've spent most of their lives locked up."
According to the Beagle Freedom Project's website, beagles are the breed of choice for lab testing of pharmaceutical, household, and cosmetic products due to their "friendly, docile, trusting, forgiving, people-pleasing personalities," their ability to adapt to life in a cage and the fact that they are relatively inexpensive to feed.
When the beagles are no longer needed for research, some labs contact organizations such as ARME, who then work to find good homes for the dogs.
Back in June, the organization gave nine lab beagles a second chance at life, filming their first steps out of their cages.
ARME is a non-profit advocacy group and 501(c)(3) organization funded by tax-deductible contributions. Information on how to make a donation or adopt a beagle is available on the organization's website.
Click here to view a list of companies that reportedly do not test on animals.
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WATCH the rescue video from June: