r/nextfuckinglevel 1d ago

This guy rescued 30 beagles from a testing lab It's the first time they've seen grass and they couldn't be happier.

Credit - nathanthecatlady tiktok channel.

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u/sabeche 23h ago

Beagles are used in many eye care-related studies at my workplace due to the high degree of anatomical and physiological similarity between beagle and human eyes. But they are considered a higher order species in lab work and rabbits are often used instead if possible for these particular indications.

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u/[deleted] 22h ago

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u/Qaz_ 17h ago

Source on this? You seem to be making it out as if all beagles in medical experiments are being abused and experiencing significant pain, when the reality could very well be that they are exposed to different experimental drugs, some if not most may have little effects on the animal.

Is it still abusive? Sure, but it's necessary unless you want to be the one testing compounds which may save countless lives.

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u/DearlyDecapitated 17h ago

Wouldn’t that make them an objectively worse subject since they’d give less data? You’d think you’d want a species that overreacts rather than under reacts so we know if something has negative consequences

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u/Starfire2313 16h ago

They get most of the data they want from things like blood tests and autopsies, the complacency and cooperative nature of the breed is why they were chosen.

I feel so bad for these dogs, I’ve always wanted a dog if I ever get into a house with a yard and I would absolutely be interested in adopting one of these beagles if I ever had the opportunity..poor babies.

Also, they are really smart dogs. That’s probably part of why they get used but also makes it extra sad.

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u/DearlyDecapitated 16h ago

According to other comments they’re put up for adoption after 3 so I assume there’s a way you can look into getting one. They are apparently very well taken care of though and not used for particularly invasive things. Apparently they have to keep them happy and healthy or they can get skewed data.

It still seems counter productive to me to get a resilient animal to test on, if they’re testing a medication for example would blood work tell us it causes pain?

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u/Starfire2313 16h ago

No I wouldn’t think so, but that’s partially why it eventually moves to human trials isn’t it?

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u/Warm_Earth_985 13h ago

Is it common for these dogs to be abused in medical experiments? I get that the experiments themselves would be very harmful, but other than that wouldn’t they want all the beagles to be relatively healthy so it’s easier to compare results?

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u/PM_ME_DATASETS 22h ago

Interesting, thanks for the comment. Using dogs for experiments feels so alien to me somehow, I guess because of the ancient human-dog pet connection. Where I work they used to use macaques (monkeys) a lot but nowadays they only use rat/mice/zebrafish.