Import of 270 Beagle dogs for animal testing

Animal Welfare Association condemns animal testing

Bonn. The German Animal Welfare Association and its Rhineland-Palatinate regional association are shocked by the reports of 270 beagle dogs from the USA that are apparently intended for animal testing. The animals landed at Hahn Airport in Rhineland-Palatinate. The animal protection organization Soko Tierschutz documented the arrival of the animals, as the “Trierischer Volksfreund” currently reports.

“These dogs are not measuring instruments, but living beings with feelings. The knowledge that the animals will experience immeasurable suffering for months or years is unbearable,” explains Anna Lena-Busch, chairwoman of the Rhineland-Palatinate regional association of the German Animal Welfare Association.

Future without animal testing: Society must rethink
The almost two million animals that are used in animal experiments in Germany each year also include 2,220 dogs, which are often used repeatedly. Beagles are particularly commonly used due to their calm and friendly nature. The typical areas of testing with dogs range from research into human cardiovascular, cancer and infectious diseases as well as disorders of the human nervous system to drug research and development and toxicity testing, for example of pesticides.

“It is time for us as a society to fundamentally rethink our relationship to animals. Nobody should accept that animals have to suffer and die for scientific purposes any longer when there have long been progressive, animal-free alternatives,” says Kristina Wagner, head of the department for animal-free science at the German Animal Welfare Association. The German Animal Welfare Association is therefore calling for an end to animal testing and a shift towards animal testing-free science. Among other things, increased support for animal-free testing and research methods is urgently needed. These methods are developed from the outset to be able to answer specific questions precisely. The “detour” via another species is omitted; instead, research is carried out directly with the human patient in mind using state-of-the-art methods.