Reuters Report: Top Federal Official Steps Down Following PETA Exposé

Update (March 28, 2023): After PETA obtained damning documents that detail how U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) leaders failed beagles suffering at Envigo, a top official is stepping down.

According to a report by Reuters, Dr. Betty Goldentyer is retiring from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service at the end of April. This sudden announcement comes after she and at least one other top Animal Care official were brought before a federal grand jury to answer questions about their failure to take action against Envigo, even though veterinary inspectors repeatedly documented the systemic mistreatment of beagles over a period of 10 months.

All the nearly 4,000 beagles who survived Envigo’s cages are now free from that hellhole, but our work isn’t done yet. The lives of 1,000 monkeys, illegally imported into the U.S. by notorious laboratory supplier Charles River Laboratories are now at risk. Please contact your members of Congress and respectfully ask them to urge these agencies to send the monkeys to a sanctuary.

Update (September 9, 2022): Months after PETA’s groundbreaking exposé, Envigo’s dog-breeding hellhole is shutting down and all the beagles are free from its cages. But our work isn’t finished yet.

Update (August 24, 2022): One of the 4,000 dogs who was rescued following PETA’s undercover investigation into Envigo—7-year-old Mia—has found her home with royalty. Mamma Mia has left behind cold metal floors, neglect, and a potential lifetime as a test subject, and she will receive the full royal treatment in her new life with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Earlier this month, PETA gave 25 beagles—who were also bred at Envigo to be sold into experimentation—some much-needed TLC and veterinary care, including baths, vaccines, spay/neuter surgeries, dental cleanings, deworming medication, and microchips. The dogs have been placed in loving, permanent homes or caring temporary foster homes while they await placement with their new pre-screened families. PETA staff also transported 13 puppies and four adult dogs to our shelter partner the Virginia Beach SPCA.

Originally posted on June 21, 2022: 

With our groundbreaking undercover investigation that blew the lid off neglect, intense confinement, suffering, and death at Envigo’s massive beagle-breeding facility in Cumberland, Virginia, PETA helped spark a historical domino effect that paved the way for the closure of the dog prison.

Within a few months, our 2021 exposé was followed by the execution of a search warrant that resulted in law-enforcement officials’ seizure of nearly 450 dogs and puppies “in acute distress,” federal citations for dozens of violations of animal welfare laws, and a legal battle with the Department of Justice (DOJ ). No more dogs will be bred and born at this beagle factory farm, but we aren’t popping champagne corks just yet—Envigo’s $330 million parent company, Inotiv, is fighting to profit off more than 500 beagles still imprisoned at the site by selling them to laboratories.

Keep reading to see how the beagle breeding operation came crashing down.

• In 2021, a PETA eyewitness investigation documented shocking abuse and neglect of dogs and puppies at an Envigo beagle factory farm—workers willfully deprived famished nursing mothers of food, workers with no veterinary credentials cut puppies out of sedated dogs’ abdomens before euthanizing the mothers, and more. Over the course of the investigation, our eyewitness found more than 360 puppies dead among their live littermates and mothers. Some puppies had been inadvertently crushed to death by their mothers inside the cramped cages, while others suffered from hydrocephalus (in which fluid builds up inside the skull and puts pressure on the brain), were eviscerated, or just couldn’t survive the harsh conditions.
• In February 2022, Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) and six other representatives sent a pressing letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), urging the agency to confiscate the dogs at Envigo or suspend the facility’s license. Then, in March 2022, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-Va.) sent an additional letter calling on APHIS to immediately suspend the facility’s license due to “persistent and egregious violations of the AWA.”
• In October 2021, PETA filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, prompting the agency to conduct at least two multi-day inspections of the facility. They found that dogs with oozing sores on their paws and other painful conditions were denied veterinary care, puppies died after falling into a drain, and more. In just one 10-month period, the facility racked up citations for more than 70 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).
• In May 2022, a federal search warrant led law-enforcement officials to seize from the facility nearly 450 dogs and puppies found in “acute distress.” Federal agents found beagles with untreated wounds and severe dental disease. The dogs were denied adequate food and water, trapped in cage floors and cage bars, and kept in “torturous conditions.”

• In June 2022, the DOJ found “serious and ongoing violations of the AWA” during a compliance check, including severely crowded enclosures and temperatures reaching 90 degrees inside the facility.

• When Envigo’s parent company, Inotiv, announced that it would close the Cumberland breeding facility, the DOJ offered Envigo a plan to place the dogs up for adoption. But instead of giving all the dogs at its facility a chance to be adopted into a loving home, the company argued that it should be allowed to “fulfill orders” and “operate its business” by selling the dogs to laboratories—even though it’s already put them through hell. 
• The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) discovered that Envigo intended to sell more than 2,200 beagles between June 24 and July 2023—in stark contrast to the company’s June 13 representations to Senior U.S. District Court Judge Norman K. Moon that it wished to sell “more than 500” dogs in the ensuing 30 days. Envigo wanted to sell more than 1,200 beagles to customers overseas after emphasizing to Moon that its facility played a significant role in the U.S. domestic industry of breeding beagles for experimentation.
• On June 27, 2022, Judge Moon denied Envigo’s motion for consent of the court to proceed with selling 2,200 dogs well into 2023, in contrast to the company’s June 13 claims that it sought to sell “more than 500 dogs” within 30 days. Judge Moon’s order reads, “the Court’s injunction … only allows sale of animals pursuant to preexisting contracts with dates of delivery within 30 days of the preliminary injunction order.” This ruling properly thwarted Envigo’s shady attempts to ‘prolong operations’ and sell as many dogs as it could despite already admitting it could not comply with the pitifully minimal requirements of the Animal Welfare Act.
• In July 2022, Judge Moon denied the company’s second attempt to gain permission to fulfill a sister entity’s contracts for approximately 2,100 beagles. The DOJ and Envigo submitted a plan to remove “all” approximately 4,000 surviving dogs from Envigo’s Cumberland, Virginia, facility so that they can be adopted.
• Judge Moon later approved the joint plan of the U.S. Department of Justice and Envigo to remove approximately 4,000 surviving dogs from the Cumberland, Virginia, facility so that they can all be adopted.
• In July 2022, Judge Moon permanently barred Envigo from “any activity requiring [a federal Animal Welfare Act] license” at the company’s Cumberland beagle-breeding factory and laboratory, including breeding and raising dogs for sale and experimenting on animals. Envigo’s parent company, Inotiv, announced in June that it would close the facility.

Help Prevent More Suffering

All the nearly 4,000 beagles who survived Envigo’s cages are now free from that hellhole, but our work isn’t done yet. The lives of 1,000 monkeys, illegally imported into the U.S. by notorious laboratory supplier Charles River Laboratories are now at risk. Please contact your members of Congress and respectfully ask them to urge these agencies to send the monkeys to a sanctuary.