Shannon Keith, president and founder of the Beagle Freedom Project, said the Duchess’s team reached out and Meghan said she has been a longtime supporter of the nonprofit. After an initial call, Harry and Meghan met with Mamma Mia in person on July 25 and finalized the adoption this month, Keith said.
“The minute they walked in, though, Mia ran up to them, tail waving,” said Keith, who is also an animal rights advocate. “It’s like she knew, ‘Oh, these are my people.’ And they were immediately falling in love with him. I was like, ‘Oh, this totally has to happen.’ Because Mia didn’t do that to anyone else she’s met before.”
The Beagle Freedom Project posted about Mia’s adoption on its website. Spokesmen for the royal couple did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Post, but confirmed their visit to the nonprofit to the Los Angeles Times.
Keith said Meghan and family, including 3-year-old son Archie and 1-year-old daughter Lilibet, They were looking for another dog now that they had settled in their residence in Montecito, California. Meghan had already adopted another rescue beagle, Guy, before moving in with Harry.
“They specifically wanted to adopt a dog that had been abused and traumatized in the past,” Keith said. Meghan “knew the story and knew about Envigo and the mother wanting to adopt. She made it clear she doesn’t want a puppy – puppies are easier to keep. She and her family like to adopt dogs that keep them It gets difficult.”
Federal investigators found dozens of animal-welfare violations last year at a Virginia facility operated by Envigo, an Indianapolis-based company that breeds and sells dogs for testing purposes to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The US Department of Agriculture expressed concern that dogs in the facility were suffering from “discomfort, lethargy or stress” due to the drop in temperature; that the food dispenser was clogged with insects; And that hundreds of puppies had died of “unknown causes” over a period of seven months.
Keith said The Beagle Freedom Project has taken in 25 of the 4,000 Beagles from the facility in Cumberland, about 50 miles west of Richmond. The Humane Society works with federal agencies to coordinate the rescue.
“We have so far removed about 3,000 Beagles from Envigo, leaving thousands of new starters for these dogs,” Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said in a statement. to post.
“We are deeply affected by the many individuals and more than 75 shelters and rescues across the country that have opened their doors to beagles who have survived suffering life in the laboratory.”
(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)