Smoking Beagle

The too-fortunate Boyboy running away from food

Slacking at home the whole morning, saw Boyboy running away from Gramps when she wanted to feed him with rice, pieces of boiled pork and veggie. Thought of going online to look at pictures of other beagles. Saw this article and feeling very angry with what I saw. Thought that there may be more humane ways of laboratory testing....


Beagles being forced to exhale smoke

The grim truth about that search for your safe cigarette

THE pitiful row of beagles, trussed up and forced to smoke cigarette after cigarette fixed in the masks. This exclusive picture shows how each helpless animal is identified by name. For Josephine it is a moment of respite before her mask is fixed.

DEATH FOR THE 30-A-DAY DOGS

Hell of helpless chain-smokers

INVESTIGATION by MARY BEITH who worked in Britain’s animal labs to get these disturbing facts

THIS is the price of smoking pleasure,

Rows of beagle dogs, trussed up and masked, and each compelled to smoke up to 30 cigarettes a day.

Smoking is not their pleasure. More of a misery.

But the chain-smoking beagles have to puff away relentlessly. As the stubs burn out, new cigarettes are promptly inserted by lab assistants in the grotesque “smoking masks” attached to these unhappy animals.

Some of the dogs go on smoking for up to three years. Then they are killed. All, of course, in the name of research. In this case research into the human pastime known as smoking.

It is part of tests being carried out by Britain’s largest company, Imperial Chemical Industries, on their new “safe” cigarette.

I observed this incredible scene while taking part with other Sunday People investigators in the first-ever probe into animal research laboratories.

A sharp increase in experiments has followed the stringent regulation ordered by the Government’s Dunlop Committee on drug safety.

Ten animals every minute are being used in licensed experiments for research.

Because Britain’s animal researchers do not welcome public attention much of our startling information was gathered by investigators obtaining jobs as laboratory assistants without disclosing their identities.

But nothing we saw was more pitiful than the chain-smoking dogs.

I.C.I. and the massive Imperial Tobacco Company have joined in investing £13 million on a new factory where the cellulose-based “New Smoking Material” – N.S.M. for short – will be used in cigarettes to reduce the health risk in human smokers.

At I.C.I.’s “Dog Toxicity Unit” at Alderley Park, Cheshire, where I took a job, there are 48 beagles smoking variations of ordinary tobacco and N.S.M.

One batch of 12, who have been smoking for two years, are expected to smoke 30 a day. Others smoke only 10 a day.

PART of my job was to get the dogs trussed in fabric slings like strait-jackets.

Their heads were restrained by locking two boards in place, like medieval stocks.

The dogs were then lifted on trolleys to the smoking platform, and the masks, valves and tubes were fixed to their faces.

WE HAD to adjust electronic valves which control the amount of amoke and clear air inhaled by the dogs.

WE HAD to watch flashing lights on the control box which indicate the dog’s breathing and tolerance of the smoke.

WE HAD to help re-fit masks where dogs had struggled free. One tried to bite my hand as I put the muzzle on.

WE HAD to hurry along dogs who got behind with their daily “ration” by adjusting the valves so that the beagles were forced to inhale more smoke to speed up the process.

I was constantly reminded to carry out this procedure.

And when they have finished their smoking stint the dogs are killed and sent to pathology laboratories to be cut up and examined for signs of cancer, liver or heart diseases or other possible effects.

Some of the dogs have acquired a smoker’s cough judging from the sounds I heard.

Some make muffled whines and cries behind their masks. One difficult dog, Buster, had to have an attendant with him all the time. I saw two attendants restraining him, one smacking him with a plastic ruler when he got restless.

One the whole, attendants were sympathetic with the dogs. But naturally the quieter dogs were favourites.

One dog, Rhumbo, never took part in experiments because he was adopted as a pet. A woman attendant told me: “We shouldn’t really keep him here, since he’s not being used. But we keep quiet about him.”

When not strapped to their trolleys, the dogs were confined in rows of small kennels and got very little exercise.

I NEVER saw any of them go outside for a romp. Yet some of the dogs, which came from the I.C.I. breeding unit as puppies, were barely nine months old.

When I was introduced to the smoking unit the supervisor told me: “Some people may not like the idea of dogs being used for experiments but millions of pounds have been invested in the project.”

And the personnel officer told me that rats, guinea-pigs and monkeys were also used in the I.C.I. labs’ experiments on a number of products, including decorating materials.

An I.C.I. spokesman pointed out that the experiments were under veterinary supervision and Home Office rules.

When it was suggested to him that the dogs were being used for research into human pleasure, rather than pure medical research, he said that I.C.I. recognised that smoking was a national phenomenon, whether one liked it or not, and they were trying to produce a substance that would reduce the health danger.

Evidence from Sunday People investigators is being studied by the R.S.P.C.A.’s special committee on animal experiments. Chairman Dr. Kit Pedlar, shown pictures of the smoking tests, said: “To subject dogs to this is unnecessary. We are most concerned at the number of experiments taking place where there is no direct medical benefit.”

The committee’s research officer, Mr. David Pennock, checks published papers on experiments and makes formal visits to research centres. “But he does not penetrate research centres under cover,” said Dr. Pedlar.