Stuttgart. On Tuesday, October 29, PETA USA released disturbing footage reportedly filmed at New York-based breeding company Marshall BioResources. They show tethered and panicked beagles wearing tight-fitting masks over their noses. The masks are similar to inhalation masks that dogs are required to wear during chemical testing. PETA USA has informed the company's customers to give them an opportunity to reconsider their business relationships with the dog and ferret breeding company.
Marshall BioResources charges a higher price for dogs that are supposedly “trained” to wear the inhaler masks. This should make testing gaseous chemicals easier for experimenters. PETA USA has made it clear in its letters to customers that Marshall BioResources is lying. Because this approach is not “training”, but rather “learned helplessness”. The beagles desperately try to take off the masks – until they finally realize that they can't and give up.
PETA USA has also informed customers that Marshall BioResources has been warned by federal authorities for numerous violations of the American Animal Welfare Act. Among other things, the company kept dogs and ferrets in dirty, dilapidated wire cages and failed to provide adequate medical care for the animals.
Marshall BioResources is the largest dog and ferret breeding animal testing company in the United States. It sells animals to government agencies, pharmaceutical companies and laboratories around the world and keeps up to 22,000 beagles and other dogs in cages.
“No decent company would buy beagles from this dubious mass breeder,” said Dr. Alka Chandna, Vice President of PETA USA. “We urge customers to reconsider their relationships with this cruel company. They should switch to better, non-animal research methods that don’t require dogs and other animals to suffer.”
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Authority for Occupational Safety and Health) has already fined Marshall BioResources $18,282 this year for inadequate workplace safety measures. An employee's hand had previously been amputated by an industrial mixer. In June, PETA USA alerted the US Department of Agriculture to a whistleblower report. This contained photos of beagles and ferrets locked in filthy cages full of feces. Dirty water and food containers could also be seen in the cages.
In 2022, Marshall BioResources was the starting point for a large-scale outbreak of the viral disease distemper. 250,000 baby ferrets were affected, and potentially life-threatening bacterial infections spread throughout the company's cat and pig herds. The outbreak of the disease was probably due in part to the cramped conditions in which the severely stressed animals were kept.
Marshall BioResources has also shipped “acutely ill and dying” animals within the U.S. and Canada, according to major pet store chains.