The Real Battle at the Heart of My Wife's Beagle Rescue Trial

Rose saved Love from MBR Acres only to have him torn from her arms by the police.

My wife Rose awaits the decision of the jury in her “burglary” trial. She is accused for organizing the rescue of 18 beagles at a facility, MBR Acres, with a license to bleed dogs of every drop of their blood, via a puncture to the heart, then sell off their organs for experiments. The verdict should come on Monday, which could change our lives dramatically. But the real battle in this case is not just about my wife and family, or even about puppies and experiments. The real battle is for the soul of our species.

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I do not mean to imply the toll of this battle is easy to bear for us personally. There have been moments in the past few weeks when both Rose and I felt broken. Rose was interrupted repeatedly in court—at her mere mention of the word “freezer,” for example—leaving her with a deep sense of the unfairness of the UK’s system of justice. I, in turn, have felt powerless in court. Unlike the US rescue trials, I am neither defendant nor lawyer in this case, and that powerlessness has not brought out the best in me. I am too focused on pushing my preferred legal strategies (“Necessity, not honesty,” I loudly argue to anyone who will listen), and not focused enough on providing support for my wife.

Perhaps worst of all, this trial has reminded both of us about Love, the beagle puppy torn from Rose’s arms by the police and sent back to his death at MBR. The feeling of despair, in re-living that traumatic moment, is debilitating.

And yet both of us recognize there is a more fundamental battle at the heart of this trial. It is a battle over who we are as a species: caretakers, or tormenters, of sentient beings?

The verdict in my wife’s trial is a test case for this question. There’s an old saying that our souls are laid bare by the presence of vulnerability. No one feels the need to put on a mask around powerless beings—for example, animals or young children. They show us who we truly are. If that is true, the MBR trial will lay bare the soul of our civilization. A guilty verdict would show that the human soul is a cruel one, willing to condemn my wife for her act of compassion. The prosecutor in my wife’s case yelled out, “There is no room for sympathy in the courtroom!” If the public believes this, it is a dark sign for the future of our species.

An acquittal, in contrast, would show the human soul’s integrity and kindness. There was a moment in court where the prosecutor mocked the defendants’ concern for animals. “You believe that every one of these animals is sentient and deserving of rescue, even a rat?” the prosecutor asked, mockingly. “It’s not my belief. It is a known fact,” defendant and rescuer John Sasportas responded. “When someone is being hurt, it is my duty to help.” An acquittal in this case would be a resounding victory, not just for the dogs of MBR, but for the rights of all animals, even little rats.

What helps both Rose and me, in the face of these stakes, is an important recognition: in a deeper sense, we have already won. There has been enormous attention brought to the cruelties of vivisection by these rescues and trials. Vivisection is on the brink, partly because of this attention. Just this week, over 50 MPs, Dame Joanna Lumley, and 170,000 petition signatories demanded MBR’s closure. Most importantly, 18 lives were saved.

Of course, some may say the rescue of 18 is a small gesture, given the thousands of dogs trapped at MBR. Yet small gestures inspire bigger ones. And that is what my wife’s actions, and the other open rescues, have achieved: a movement to save them all. Even in the face of industry threats and government repression, nearly 500 have committed to joining the rescue effort at Ridglan Farms, a beagle torture facility similar to MBR Acres in the United States. Nearly 200 have committed to risking arrest in the Ridglan action, if necessary, to compel the government to rescue the dogs. And we are united by a common vision, one that Rose described movingly in her closing statement:

We did this because there is a world we are trying to build. Not a world without rules, but a world that lives up to the values we already hold.

A world where ordinary people, when they see an animal suffering and scared, do not feel compelled to give up or look away. Where the instinct to help, as I felt as a child, is not punished but celebrated.

Where Love’s story does not end at 16 weeks in a concrete cage.

But after growing old with a loving family.

Love deserved that life. So do all the animals who face torture or death. The fight to defend my wife, then, is not just a fight for her, or for Love, but a fight for all the animals of this earth. A battle over who we are as a species.

On March 16, that fight will continue at Ridglan Farms. I hope you’ll join the battle.