35°
A bill sponsored in the state Assembly by Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) and in the state Senate by Phil Boyle (R-Suffolk County) calls for state-funded research facilities to offer the animals to nonprofit shelters or other rescue operations.
The facilities can also run their own adoption programs, Boyle said Thursday.
It was passed by the state Legislature earlier this month but still has to be sent to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for his signature.
"Once this bill is passed, it means that research animals will have a chance at a second life," Rosenthal said Friday.
It's the least they deserve, she said, "after being poked and prodded, purposefully made sick, and deprived of human kindness that other animals have enjoyed."
Cuomo has 10 days to consider the bill, but once it is signed, it will be in effect within 30 days.
The justification cited in the bill refers to current laws that govern the treatment of lab animals.
Those laws relate to food, bedding, and pain management, among other things, the bill said.
Finding them new homes after the experiments are over should be part of that, the bill's sponsors said.
"After all the animals have endured, the years of testing, they deserve a loving, forever home," Boyle said.
A licensed veterinarian would determine if an animal is fit to be adopted.
The bill is commonly known as the Beagle Freedom Bill because beagles are a “popular breed” for lab use, according to an organization known as The Beagle Freedom Project.
The project’s mission is to rescue beagles from research labs and find them homes.
According to its website, beagles are used because of their “friendly, docile, trusting, forgiving, people-pleasing personalities.”
The research industry, which tests medical, pharmaceutical, household and cosmetic products, claims that beagles adapt well to living in cages and don’t cost much to feed, according to the rescue group.
The group said the beagles are obtained from commercial operations that breed the dogs specifically “to sell to scientific institutions.”
According to beaglefreedomproject.org, the law has already been enacted in Connecticut, Minnesota, California and Nevada.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Mahopac and receive free news updates.
