Written by Morgan Pattan
Teddy’s Law is a piece of legislation that was recently passed by the Senate on June 29, 2023. This bill was named after Teddy, a beagle who was rescued from euthanasia from a Michigan Lab in 2018. The bill incentivizes adoption of dogs or cats following their time in a laboratory rather than euthanizing them, unless euthanizing the animal is required for health or safety reasons. It also requires laboratories performing animal testing to report the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) who would impose civil penalties for failure to comply with adoption standards.
Michigan is one of at least 13 states which passed similar legislation, largely following the highly publicized rescue mission that saved 4,000 beagles from horrible conditions at a lab facility. In the summer of 2022, these beagles were saved from a mass breeding facility where they were bound for animal testing laboratories. This facility had been previously cited on multiple occasions for violating the Animal Welfare Act. These animals would have been subject to a life of suffering in the breeding facility by receiving inadequate veterinary care and insufficient food, only to be transported to a research facility where they would suffer in numerous other ways. Animals used in research, and specifically dogs, are given minimal standards of housing, food, and exercise under the law. However, it is all to common to find that these animals are subject to these cruel experiments without anything to minimize their pain or distress during or after the procedure. In the past, these dogs were then euthanized following their time in the laboratory so that their internal tissues and organs could be examined by scientists. In some instances, animals will be put to death deliberately for the experiment, as is the case in the LD50 test, a test which performance is required by the EPA for pesticide evaluation and approval.
Without Teddy’s Law, these dogs are subject to a lifetime of suffering without ever being given the chance to truly be a dog. The passage of these bills is a huge step towards a State that is more animal welfare friendly.