Group seeks animal adoptions after testing

Posted on April 20, 2016
Beagle Freedom Project
The Beagle Freedom Project is pushing a measure to make it easier for beagles to be adopted at local animal shelters. (Photo courtesy TEDxRB/flickr)

By FarmWeekNow/WFMB

SPRINGFIELD – The Beagle Freedom Project is seeking a way to get a home to animals used in medical testing procedures.

Now, some of those dogs, generally beagles, are put up for adoption. But a broader effort is underway to get the Research Animal Protection Bill passed to compel local labs to reach out to a local shelters to see if a dog or cat could be put up for adoption. The group’s Kevin Chase said there are a few informal adoption programs around the state and they’d like to see a more formal process.

“(Beagles) are very docile, people-pleasing, forgiving,” Chase said, noting about 65,000 dogs are used in U.S. laboratories each year and 90 percent of them are beagles.

Chase said shelters are ready to take the dogs or cats in and they can make great pets once they are done.

The Beagle Freedom Project works in 36 states, including Illinois and eight countries and has helped place more than 600 beagles in shelters.

 

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…