Dog Supplier to Labs Envigo Sentenced on Historic Conspiracy Charges, Must Pay More Than $35 Million in Penalties: PETA Statement

For Immediate Release:
October 24, 2024

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch regarding Senior U.S. District Court Judge Norman K. Moon’s sentencing of Envigo this morning, at which he ordered the company to pay more than $35 million in penalties, including $22 million in fines, following its June 3 guilty pleas to a criminal charge of conspiracy to violate the federal Animal Welfare Act and a felony charge of conspiracy to violate the federal Clean Water Act. These first-ever federal convictions of a supplier of animals for experimentation followed PETA’s undercover investigation into Envigo’s Cumberland, Virginia, beagle factory farm, which prompted U.S. officials to cite the facility for dozens of violations of law and execute a search warrant there.

We’re proud that PETA’s undercover investigation found violations the federal government would never have known about otherwise—including killing conscious puppies via excruciatingly painful injections into the heart and lying to inspectors about how little famished mother dogs were being fed—and recorded workers pressure-hosing caged animals with cold water. Envigo knowingly ignored and prolonged the suffering of thousands of beagles and their puppies so that it could rake in $11 million. Criminal charges for its former executives and others culpable for the horrific cruelty in Cumberland must be next.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.