When you think about the animals used in scientific research, mice or monkeys might come to mind.
But you should also think about beagles.
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As science journalist Melanie D.G. Kaplan describes in her new book, “Lab Dog,” tens of thousands of beagles are used in the U.S. for medical research, testing chemical safety, and more. I asked her why that is.
“The pat answer I always heard was that because they’re docile and small and you can easily pick them up and they are pretty much happy to do whatever you want, which is not good news for the ones in the lab,” she said during this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast.”
There’s another reason they are so often used in research, though: “After the Civil War, when beagles were brought over here from England … they were trying to breed a better beagle for hunting,” Kaplan said. “And so when it came time to test for drugs and use animal models for that, it was, I think, a pretty obvious pivot to start breeding dogs for that. They already had this infrastructure of beagles and kennels and lots of breeding.”
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In “Lab Dog,” Melanie goes on a journey with her beloved adopted beagles, Hammy, a retired research dog, to find out where he came from. Along the way, she explores the ways that dogs contribute to medical research, the potential and limitations of substitutes for animals in the lab, and much more.
On this episode, we discussed the ethics of animal research, Hammy’s story, the U.S. government’s attempt to move away from animal research, and why the number of beagles used in lab research has dropped from 70,000 when she adopted Hammy to 40,000 today.
Why so many beagles are used in lab research
