The little lab beagle had nothing in life: no family, no walks, not even a soft place to lie down when he was in pain. But after a lifetime in a metal cage, he was at least promised this: no suffering in death.
Even that small promise, however, was broken. On his last day on Earth, the frightened dog was stomped on the neck and injected with a toxic chemical into his belly. His death would not be a good death. It would be slow and agonizing, as the chemical burned him alive from the inside.
Today, we submitted disturbing new evidence to New York authorities regarding the abuse of dogs at Marshall BioResources, the largest provider of dogs for experiments in the nation. The evidence, which is based on inspection records, photographic evidence, and new whistleblower accounts, is summarized in a criminal referral letter drafted by a former federal prosecutor, Bonnie Klapper, who spent a career pursuing violent drug cartels and knows a criminal enterprise when she sees one. And Klapper’s referral shows that dogs are killed at Marshall in ways that are so “depraved or sadistic” that they constitute felony abuse. Klapper asks Wayne County District Attorney, Christine Callanan, to immediately “open a criminal investigation” and “seize and protect animals” who face imminent torture or death.
In a typical year, hundreds of dogs at Marshall are killed for a kink in the tail, the wrong-colored eyes, or even a mother dog acting too protectively toward her puppies.
One dog, frightened and barking at staff, was stomped on the neck as sodium pentobarbital, a highly toxic chemical, was injected into his abdomen because the staff could not find a vein in his leg. When sodium pentobarbital is improperly injected into the belly, it causes dogs to thrash and scream for 5-10 minutes before they die. The dogs looked as if “they were being burned alive from the inside,” according to a witness to the killings.
Another dog was strapped to a table for so-called inhalation training—a practice where dogs are forced to wear a face mask that will teach them to accept breathing deadly gases, including a chemical agent banned as a literal weapon of mass destruction. The dog tried to “alligator roll” to escape this torment but became tangled in the harness. She defecated and urinated in a panic and struggled against her restraints. When staff members found her, she was already dead.
In a typical week, so many dogs were killed that the bags waiting for the incinerator stood as tall as the men stacking them.
But the killings are just one part of Klapper’s body of evidence. Here are some of the others:
Dogs being thrown like frisbees into cage walls so violently that it left the dogs’ jaws and heads shaking;
Conditions so filthy that staff would engage in “panic cleans” before supposedly “unannounced” inspections by regulators; and
Puppies suffocating to death in food pans, as they desperately searched for warmth on cold winter days by burying themselves in warm bowls dropped in their cages.
This conduct is not just cruel. It’s illegal. New York law makes it a crime when anyone “engages in… any act of cruelty.” That elevates to a felony when a dog is killed in a fashion that is “depraved or sadistic.” Marshall, in other words, is a criminal enterprise. So why has the government failed to stop its abuses?
It’s not because the evidence was particularly hard to find. Evidence of abuse, including leaked photos and video, has been all over the internet in the last couple years. It is an open secret that Marshall abuses dogs.
It’s also not because there are significant legal obstacles. There are clear provisions under state and federal law that give the government the immediate authority—indeed, the duty—to save the dogs.
The reason the government has failed to protect the dogs is that it sees its abusers as “customers.” Internal strategy documents from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the government’s primary inspection agency for animal welfare, show the government describing animal abusers as “customers” to serve rather than corporations to hold accountable to the law.
This bizarre state of affairs has not stopped Marshall from claiming they are “highly regulated and subject to ongoing oversight.” Indeed, in the last few days, the company has been posting incessantly on social media that government inspectors recently gave them a “clean report with no citations” after an “unannounced inspection.” (Marshall conveniently left out that the government has acknowledged that its inspections are “basically meaningless.”)
For a long time, Marshall got away with these lies. But no longer. Klapper’s letter is the first stage in the truth coming out. Over the next few months, there will be more stories about the atrocities committed by Marshall BioResources against defenseless dogs.
More importantly, there will be action. National political allies of our movement, such as Representative Nick Langworthy, are moving to pass legislation to protect the dogs. Protests are unfolding across the nation asking Marshall’s buyers to stop paying for criminal abuse of dogs. And in just a couple weeks, hundreds of people will be marching right up to the doorstep of Marshall.
Nothing we do now helps the beagle who died screaming as brutal men stomped his neck. But everything we do now will determine what happens to the dogs that are left. So let’s go save the dogs.
What you can do
Call District Attorney Christine Callanan and Attorney General Letitia James and ask them to rescue the dogs. Both of these elected officials have the authority today to save every one of the Marshall dogs. Our web portal gives you all the info you need. Take action here.
Join us in Wisconsin this weekend as we prepare for the next rescue effort. Whether through government intervention or direct citizen action, we will save these dogs. And there’s no better place to learn how to do this than the place where we did it last: Wisconsin, the home of Ridglan Farms. Register here.
The March to Abolish Animal Testing will take hundreds right to the doorstep of Marshall in just a couple weeks—and we want you there with us. The government rarely takes action on cruelty complaints, as the Ridglan case demonstrates. But we can overcome that problem by putting pressure on them to enforce the law. On Sept. 12, we will begin our 207-mile march across New York, culminating on Sept. 26 with a massive rally at the gates of Marshall BioResources. Join us for a day, a mile, or all 207.
If you are a Marshall whistleblower, we are here to support you. More people are stepping up to share their stories of abuse. We have a world class legal team to help. Feel free to email me at this newsletter—or reach out via Direct Action Everywhere’s whistleblower helpline.
I can’t understand how poeple can be so cruel to the beagles, its a disgrace and it needs to end NOW
Thank you Wayne for bringing these atrocities out into the light- public attention is the key to stopping this horrible cruelty!