Bill Maher Wants All Dogs From Envigo Released for Adoption

For Immediate Release:
June 22, 2022

Contact:
Amanda Hays 202-483-7382

Because the beleaguered Envigo breeding facility in Cumberland, Virginia, is still planning to sell more than 500 beagles for experimentation before it closes its doors, PETA Honorary Director Bill Maher sent a letter this morning to Robert Leasure Jr., the CEO of Inotiv, Envigo’s parent company, calling on him to allow the dogs to be released for adoption instead.

“How can you look these gentle beagles in the eye—knowing that they feel pain and fear just like the dogs who share our homes—and sentence them to a lifetime of suffering?” writes Maher. “These long-neglected animals have suffered enough in the name of profit for your company, [so] please give every last one the freedom to enjoy life with a loving family.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Maher’s letter to Leasure follows.

Robert Leasure Jr., CEO

Inotiv Inc.

Dear Mr. Leasure:

I was relieved to hear that the Envigo beagle-breeding facility that PETA exposed in Cumberland, Virginia, is finally closing after racking up a staggering 74 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act in just 10 months and a federal raid and nearly 450 dogs and puppies were seized from what a judge called “torturous conditions.” However, I am writing with an urgent request: Let all of the remaining dogs be made available for adoption into loving homes.

While it is wonderful to know that no more beagles will be born in this prison, I was appalled to learn that Inotiv still wants to sell up to 500 of the surviving dogs to cruel laboratories. How can you look these gentle beagles in the eye—knowing that they feel pain and fear just like the dogs who share our homes—and sentence them to a lifetime of suffering?

These long-neglected animals have suffered enough in the name of profit for your company, please give every last one the freedom to enjoy life with a loving family. Inotiv and Envigo’s failures have made headlines across the country, but you still have time to do the right thing. Please let them be adopted now.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

Bill Maher