After her traumatic start, Betsy came to learn that she was a dearly loved & treasured member of her new forever family.
The Dog’s Trust rescued Betsy from a laboratory breeder when she was only 16 weeks old, the same age as the eldest pups bred by laboratory dog breeder MBR Acres.
Betsy’s Mum describes those early days, when Betsy’s struggles with PTSD were part of every day life:
“My husband and son went to Dog’s Trust in November 2016 as we knew they had 21 rescue beagles that had arrived from Ireland. We were told very little about her background. Rather than choose one of the beagles, it was a case of boy or girl and they were passed Betsy. She was four months old and her ears were way too big for her body. She had worried eyes and seemed more interested in her kennel mate than us.
After a couple of visits, she came home in December 2016. She was very friendly with us and other dogs but the world was a scary place. On walks, she’d shake and we’d have to pick her up, reassure her and then go a few steps further to repeat the process.
Every smell, sound and probably even texture of the ground was new and unfamiliar to her. She refused to walk over a small bridge and have to be carried, she wanders over it now quite happily. Neither would she walk through a stream. A puppy should be excited by the world but it was very different for Betsy.
Betsy is a happy dog now but will never be overly confident or excitable. She is however quite vocal at the end of our garden, very affectionate and has the best ears in the world! Betsy is a wonderful part of the family and we love her dearly.”
Ricky Gervais says: “meeting Betsy was beautiful; she’s a tender gentle dog who is now enjoying a happy life in her loving forever home. It’s terrible to think that Betsy started life in the brutal environment of a laboratory breeder, where dogs are crammed into small cells with no outside walks, forced to endure repetitive pacing back and forth, unable to escape the stench of uncleaned floors and the despair which fills their minds. The experiments laboratory animals are bred for fail humans too: it’s time for the fair and transparent EDM 278 science hearing, to stop the false claims about human medicine which fund this appalling cruelty to dogs, and other animals.”
Please take action to help Betsy’s campaign
To help Betsy end experiments on dogs, and other animals, please ask your MP to join 110 cross-party Members who are calling for a rigorous public science hearing, to stop false claims about human medicine which continue to fund animal experiments. Simply type in your postcode at this link to ask your MP to sign EDM 278 today!
Watch the recent historic Westminster Hall debate, where cross-party MPs call for Betsy’s science hearing as they debate Peter Egan’s petition, ‘Change the Law to Include Laboratory Animals in the Animal Welfare Act’ – and stop their unnecessary suffering.
Please DONATE whatever you can to help Betsy’s campaign.