The Trial Is With the Jury. The Defendants' Closing Words Brought Us to Tears.

Rose carrying Love out of MBR Acres.

Five defendants, including my wife Rose Patterson, just finished their “burglary” trial for rescuing 18 beagles from MBR Acres in Cambridgeshire, UK. The case is now with the jury. Two of the defendants, including Rose and our friend John Sasportas, a 71-year old former teacher and church warden, represented themselves. I will update you all when we have a verdict, but here are their closing words to the jury.

Rose Patterson

Members of the jury, thank you so much for being so patient and for listening to everything that has been said, that means a lot to me.

I am standing before you today because I wanted to save some lives.

Twenty-five years ago, as a child, when I first found out there was an animal testing lab minutes from where I lived. Where defenseless cats and dogs were subjected to painful experiments. I never imagined that I would end up on trial for rescuing one of those dogs.

As you know, today, beagles are still being bred at MBR Acres and sent to that same facility in Harrogate.

Nothing has changed in 25 years, despite whistleblowers exposing violations of law. Despite relentless campaigning to save the beagles from this criminal abuse. I know this not just because of my studies with Dr. Andrew Knight and other animal welfare experts. I know this because I saw the cruelty firsthand.

However, we are a nation of animal lovers. We rescue strays. We campaign to save British wildlife. We open our homes to animals who have nowhere else to go.

And yet somewhere along the way, we let the beagles down.

Not because we stopped caring. But because a broken system, and broken promises from the government that was supposed to protect them, put the beagles somewhere most of us could not see. Behind closed doors. Behind legislation that promised protection and delivered none. Behind an inspection regime that stopped inspecting.

I want to go back to the last time I saw Love.

He was in the back of the police car. As I watched from the back of the adjacent police car, I saw him licking the policewoman’s face, climbing on her lap and wagging his tail.

I watched her playing with him through the window. I could see it, she wanted the best for him too. Of course she did. She was a human being holding a beagle puppy. There is only one way that feels.

But the powers that be overruled her, and the thousands of people that called for Love to be freed. And sadly Love was returned to MBR Acres.

I have thought so many times about the life he almost had. He was so close to safety. He could have come home with me, to London, to my husband and our dog Oliver. He could have had toys, a soft bed, the freedom to run on Hackney Marshes in the morning. Just as all dogs deserve.

Instead, he went back to being number 0M21066. One of many, in a concrete cage covered in urine and faeces, with an empty barrel and a ball hanging from a chain.

From there, I don’t know. Either his blood was drained from his body until there was nothing left for his heart to pump. Or he was shipped to a laboratory and used in experiments until he died, or was no longer useful, and was put to sleep.

I will never know which. But I do know he has gone. Every single puppy you saw in that footage has gone. Every one.

So I want to ask you something.

I have described two lives for Love. One is a concrete cage, a ball on a chain, a needle in the heart, the serial code 0M21066. The other is a soft bed, walks in the outdoors, a family who names him Love.

Which of those two lives represents who we are as a nation of animal lovers?

Which one is honest and decent? Which one hides what it does behind closed doors, behind systems designed so that most people never see what’s happening inside?

We did not hide. We showed you everything.

Most of what the prosecution knows about how and why the rescue was organised comes from us and our footage. It is not common for a burglar to go to the authorities and share exactly what they did and why.

We filmed and published it. We told the police what we had done. We were honest.

And 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 world. So do all the ones who came after him.

That world is possible. It is kind. It is honest.

Now, it is over to you, the decision is in your hands to decide whether this was a burglary, or a puppy rescue.

Thank you.

John Sasportas

When someone is hurt, I believe I have a duty to help. I do not believe that is dishonest. It is in our nature to help one another. It’s not a crime. It’s compassion.

I believe we all have a choice when we see someone who is hurting.

The people who have seen me struggling after my stroke make the choice to give up their seat. I’m grateful for their kindness.

The wildlife rehabbers who see animals trapped and crying make the choice to rescue them, and take them to receive medical care. The world is better for that kindness.

And I believe that I had a choice when I was asked to take these desperate puppies to loving homes. I could choose to either fulfill my responsibility to help… or I could turn my back on those dogs and their cries for help.

I’m grateful to Animal Rising for creating the opportunity for people like me, even at my age, to have a part in this rescue: driving the dogs to receive the love and life they deserve.

Mr Cohen brought up the Ten Commandments. How can saving a life from torture and certain death be considered ‘stealing’?

There’s also an axiom in most world religions: “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.” I try to live up to this axiom in my life.

In my long and varied life, I can honestly say that being part of the rescue of those puppies was one of the most worthwhile things I’ve ever done, and I was privileged to be amongst a group of truly brave and compassionate individuals.

Eighteen dogs are alive today because of their choice to rescue.

MBR had a choice, too, and they chose to hurt the dogs. Unlike a stroke or a trapped bird, the suffering at MBR is not due to disease or accident. The dogs are intentionally trapped in cages, awaiting their deaths, because of a corporation’s choice to profit from experiments with household products. I believe this choice is immoral and illegal. And our government has ignored it. Out of millions of experiments, and hundreds of violations, there have been zero prosecutions.

Dogs are not objects. For 20,000 years, they have been our best friends. They are loyal, they can read our facial expressions and offer us comfort when we’re sad.

They must not be bled out, stabbed in the heart, and cut apart for their organs.

I believe ordinary decent people can understand that my actions were honest. I made my choice to join the rescue effort because I believed desperate beagles deserved to feel the comfort of a blanket, see the sunlight, and to feel the love of a family.

I do not believe that helping these dogs, when they were being hurt, was wrong nor dishonest.

I do not believe it was a crime.

It was compassion.