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Update (July 6, 2022): Senior U.S. District Court Judge Norman K. Moon 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. PETA’s groundbreaking undercover investigation helped spark a historic domino effect of state and federal legislative and law-enforcement action that paved the way for these dogs’ independence and this dog prison’s closure.
Update (July 1, 2022): HUGE NEWS! In the latest order issued in the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) civil case against Envigo, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Norman K. 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 have just submitted a plan for the Humane Society of the United States to remove “all” approximately 4,000 surviving dogs from Envigo’s Cumberland, Virginia, facility so that they can be adopted. PETA’s groundbreaking undercover investigation helped spark a historic domino effect of state and federal legislative and law-enforcement action that paved the way for these dogs’ independence and this dog prison’s closure.
Update (June 13, 2022): Today, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Norman K. Moon heard the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request for a preliminary injunction in its civil case against Envigo. The DOJ indicated that it has offered Envigo a plan by which dogs at the Cumberland breeding facility would be placed for adoption. Envigo’s counsel repeatedly indicated that the company is willing to shut the facility down but argued that the company should be allowed to “operate its business” and sell beagles to laboratories despite continued violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which governs the animals’ care. The court instructed Envigo and the DOJ to continue discussing how to settle the case. This hearing comes days after Envigo relinquished 446 beagles found in “acute distress” and seized last month by the DOJ and other law-enforcement agents, and just months after PETA released our undercover investigation into the facility.
Update (May 21, 2022): Breaking: U.S. Judge Bars Envigo from Breeding, Selling Dogs in Groundbreaking Order
Today, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Norman K. Moon entered a temporary restraining order in the United States’ civil case against Envigo. This comes just months after PETA’s investigation into the facility.
The Court concluded, “[T]he Government has provided sufficient evidence that Envigo is engaged in serious and ongoing violations of the Animal Welfare Act, and that an immediate temporary restraining order must issue to put a halt to such violations pending further proceedings.” The Court ordered that Envigo “[i]mmediately cease breeding, selling, or otherwise dealing in beagles at the Cumberland Facility, until in full compliance with” the order’s other requirements.
Update (May 20, 2022): On May 18, 2022, federal agents began executing a search warrant at Envigo and seized 145 dogs and puppies veterinarians found in need of immediate veterinary treatment or other care for life-threatening illnesses, injuries, or other conditions. On May 19, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint against Envigo, asking a federal court to “permanently enjoin and restrain Envigo from violating the AWA.” Stay tuned for more updates.
Original post:
A 2021 PETA undercover investigation found 5,000 beagle dogs and puppies intensively confined to small, barren kennels and cages 24/7 at a massive breeding mill in Cumberland, Virginia. During the course of the investigation, the mill was owned and operated by Envigo.
In July 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cited Envigo for 26 violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Federal veterinarians found 15 dogs denied treatment for “severe dental disease,” wounds, yellow discharge around the eyes, and more; a “depressed” puppy covered with feces in a waste pan; dogs denied food for days while nursing puppies; and much more. To view the USDA’s inspection reports, click here.
Based on PETA’s evidence, a team of USDA officials conducted a multiday inspection of the puppy mill in October 2021. The USDA corroborated PETA’s findings and cited Envigo for 13 more violations, including 11 repeat violations. Inspectors found that a puppy and some dogs were deprived of veterinary care for an eye infection, crusted and oozing sores on their paws, and other eye and foot ailments; that puppies died after falling into a drain or getting their head trapped in a cage door; and that puppies’ legs and feet fell through the cage floors. According to the report, workers medicated dogs without consulting the facility’s sole full-time veterinarian; took no steps to prevent fights among dogs, resulting in a puppy found eviscerated in an enclosure with nine littermates and staff unaware that another dog was biting and wounding another; and, in just two months, put down nine dogs who were injured when their leg or tail was pulled through a kennel wall by other dogs. The USDA found moldy feces in dog enclosures, up to 6 inches of feces piled in a gutter, and an “overpowering fecal odor” and “strong sewage odor” in the facility. To view this inspection report, click here.
The dogs had no beds, no toys, no stimulation—no real lives. For more than 50 years, various companies have bred them at this dog factory farm to sell to laboratories for experimentation.
Deprived of any opportunity to run, play, and simply act like dogs, the beagles just pace back and forth and jump up and down. See for yourself:
The dogs were kept in sheds that stretched as long as a football field and were deafeningly loud when hundreds of them barked at once. The noise level reached over 117 decibels—louder than a rock concert—and of course, the dogs have no way to escape from the virtually constant noise. Dogs’ hearing is much more sensitive than humans’—they hear sounds that we cannot and from much farther away. The crowded and stressful conditions cause the animals to fight, often resulting in injuries, especially to their ears. Female dogs are bred repeatedly for years. Many gave birth to puppies on the hard floor.
A supervisor found one pregnant dog afflicted with a fever. The next day, a worker found her “dead—like stiff as a board,” with “two puppies in her and … they had torn through her uterus [and] were just kind of floating around in her abdomen. So all like … the afterbirth … was all … in her stomach. And I think that just led to a massive infection.”
Dead and Dying Puppies: An Almost Daily Occurrence
Over the course of the investigation, PETA’s eyewitness found more than 350 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.
One Monday, PETA’s investigator found a puppy whose body was split open, was rotting, and smelled rancid in a cage with the puppy’s mother and littermates. A worker said, “That puppy’s probably been in there since Friday.”
Some puppies fell through holes in the cages and ended up in drains, soaking wet and covered with feces, bedding, and waste. Typically, they did not survive.
PETA’s investigator brought one such puppy to a supervisor and the site manager, who responded, “Shit.” As staff discussed putting the puppy in with a nearby nursing dog, the site manager said of dogs in the room, “Honest to God, those fuckers are so close[ly] related … we’re probably not that far off.” The next morning, PETA’s investigator found the puppy dead.
Conscious Puppies Killed by Intracardiac Injection—Excruciating and Unacceptable
Workers put some puppies down by trying to inject euthanasia solution into their hearts while they were conscious and able to feel the needle penetrating their chest, contrary to veterinary guidelines for euthanasia.
After a worker denied that he needed to sedate one conscious puppy before putting her down, the puppy raised her head. When PETA’s investigator pointed out that “she’s still … awake,” the worker did not respond. He just put the needle into the animal’s chest and injected the solution.
A supervisor was aware of this practice and knew that at least one worker engaged in it. Some workers did little—or nothing at all—to verify that animals were dead before putting them into plastic bags.
Soaking Animals and Food With High-Pressure Water
Nursing mothers and their puppies were left in cages while a supervisor and others sprayed the cages with a high-pressure hose. The dogs were left soaking wet.
Careless spraying also left food moldy and rotting, and maggots sometimes infested puppies’ food.
In addition, the facility caged cats in desolate rooms, where they were desperate for attention.
Lay Workers With No Veterinary Credentials ‘Diagnosing’ and Cutting Open Dogs
When dogs were sick or injured, lay workers tried to diagnose and treat them.
A supervisor inserted a needle into a puppy’s head, without anesthetics or analgesics, in a crude attempt to drain fluid from a wound. The puppy cried out, loudly—so the supervisor tried to hold his mouth shut.
Workers who were not veterinarians—or even veterinary technicians—cut prolapsed tissue off puppies’ eyes, stitched dogs’ prolapsed penises, and even cut puppies out of sedated dogs’ abdomens before putting the mothers down.
They were expected to perform “necropsies” by cutting open puppies’ remains in an attempt to determine their cause of death.
Standard Operating Procedures and the Suffering They Caused
Workers were instructed to use clamps to remove newborn puppies’ dewclaws—where bone meets nail—without any pain relief.
Workers were also tasked with pressing needled clamps into puppies’ ears—as their mothers looked on—and then rub paint into the resulting holes to tattoo them. Dozens of puppies were tattooed three times—first with the wrong information, the second time with “X”s over the mistakes, and then again with the intended tattoo.
Refusing to Follow the Feds’ Directives and Conspiring to Conceal It
For their final 48 hours with the puppies, workers intentionally deprived nursing mothers of food. According to a supervisor, USDA inspectors told management in July to feed the dogs through their last nursing day, but the supervisor refused and continued to deny the mother dogs even half a cup of kibble.
After telling PETA’s investigator and another worker that nursing dogs “did not get fed,” the supervisor cautioned, “[I]f too many people know it, it’s gonna get out that’s what we’re doing, and then it’s gonna get bad.” Later, the supervisor encouraged workers to say that they were feeding nursing mothers—if they were asked about it—even though they had been instructed not to.
You Can Help!
Please continue to make your voice heard for the dogs who suffered and died at this prison-like breeding facility. Demand that the U.S. Department of Agriculture finally suspend the company’s license to operate, preventing more animals from enduring the same fate!
If you think you have what it takes to carry out undercover investigations like this one, we want to hear from you. Click here to express your gratitude to the investigator who exposed this cruelty.