Two million scientific experiments were carried out on animals in the UK in 2022.
More than four thousand Beagles were among them.
Home office figures published in April 2024 show that in 2022 there were 175 cases of non-compliance to government regulations regarding the welfare of animals used in testing. More than 16,000 animals were affected. The government is promising to investigate.
MBR Acres in Cambridgeshire is a puppy farm, where beagles are bred to be tested on with toxic chemicals.
Campaigners say the practice is cruel, outdated and unnecessary. Proponents argue animal tests are essential for the advancement of science.
Outside MBR Acres is an encampment of protesters who have lived at the site for almost three years. John Curtin is one of them. He explains how they obtained footage inside the top security site - and how he's been arrested for flying a small drone over the site.
John tells us how he has seen hundreds of vans carrying dogs from site, which they have followed across the UK to their final destinations - science laboratories. He shares stories of animal rights group Animal Rising who have broken into the site and freed a number of dogs.
I invited the following parties to participate in the podcast or provide a comment. They did not.
MBR Acres Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, Andrew Griffith Professor David Main, Chair of the Animals in Science Committee MP for Huntingdon, Jonathan Djanogly MP for North West Cambridgeshire, Shailesh Vara
Two million scientific experiments were carried out on animals in the UK in 2022.
More than four thousand Beagles were among them.
Home office figures published in April 2024 show that in 2022 there were 175 cases of non-compliance to government regulations regarding the welfare of animals used in testing. More than 16,000 animals were affected. The government is promising to investigate.
MBR Acres in Cambridgeshire is a puppy farm, where beagles are bred to be tested on with toxic chemicals.
Campaigners say the practice is cruel, outdated and unnecessary. Proponents argue animal tests are essential for the advancement of science.
Outside MBR Acres is an encampment of protesters who have lived at the site for almost three years. John Curtin is one of them. He explains how they obtained footage inside the top security site - and how he's been arrested for flying a small drone over the site.
John tells us how he has seen hundreds of vans carrying dogs from site, which they have followed across the UK to their final destinations - science laboratories. He shares stories of animal rights group Animal Rising who have broken into the site and freed a number of dogs.
I invited the following parties to participate in the podcast or provide a comment. They did not.
MBR Acres Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, Andrew Griffith Professor David Main, Chair of the Animals in Science Committee MP for Huntingdon, Jonathan Djanogly MP for North West Cambridgeshire, Shailesh Vara
In 2022, more than 2.76 million experiments were carried out on living animals in Great Britain. More than 4,000 of those tests were carried out on dogs. Most of them were beagles. I'm journalist Angela Walker, and in this podcast I talk to inspirational people and discuss under-reported issues. My guest today is John Curtin, who spent more than two years camped outside a facility in Cambridgeshire where they breed beagles to be tested on. Thank you so much for joining us, john. I want to hear all about Camp Beagle and what it's like being camped outside that facility MBR Acres in Huntingdon but first of all, what goes on in that place? What's happening in there?
John Curtin:
People think this stuff was banned in the 70s. I can tell you now I'm an eyewitness it's absolutely going on today. It's very simple it's a beagle factory. What do those beagles get used for? They get used for insane, cruel, outdated, useless toxicology tests that were invented 70 years ago. 70 years, two van, two van loads you talked about millions of animal experiments two van loads of dogs went out. Today we believe they're going to go to charles river because, because they're only used for toxicology tests, they only go to like charles river toxicology tests. They only go to Charles River Toxicology Laboratory, huntingdon Toxicology Laboratory and Sequani in Ledbury. So they breed dogs for cruel, outdated, useless experiments. The reason they do it at the site they are is because check this out, don't believe anything I say. They were kicked out of italy. The staff were imprisoned in italy. They had to leave italy because they said it was too restrictive. Marshall bio resources is an american multinational company and they decided to seek sanctuary in the uk instead.
Angela Walker:
Uk, the nation of dog lovers you're really confident about this kind of toxicology testing. How do you know that that's what's happening?
John Curtin:
Because we're the nosy neighbours, like we'll come to the camp, and I've lived there for like two years and nine months. I've been involved in the anti-vivisection movement for 40 years. Before the camp I wasn't really aware too much about these toxicology tests, otherwise known as regulatory procedures. Since then we've studied and it's very hard to study these experiments because they're all shrouded in secrecy. They hide behind wall after wall of secrecy. But we've now discovered that virtually all, nearly every dog that leaves NBR and it's the only beagle breeders for labs in the country they all go to toxicology labs.
John Curtin:
And why do they do it On the project license? They have to give a reason and their reason is this because we've done it for 70 years. Science has moved on in all the areas except this area and that's why no one in this country will defend it. Good luck to you for finding anyone to talk about these tests. No one has come up so far. There's a paid lobby group that will do it if NBR paid them, but not a single MP, not a single scientist, not even a single toxicologist.
Angela Walker:
No one will defend these tests. Actually, I have been trying to get hold of someone from NBR Acres and nobody's responding to any emails. I've been chasing them for weeks and weeks, and weeks and haven't been able to get hold of anyone. I would say that's a strategy.
John Curtin:
It's a strategy employed by the animal testing industry since they began.
Angela Walker:
So there is an organisation called Understanding Animal Research and they say there are three main reasons for animal research to advance scientific understanding to develop solutions to medical problems and to protect the safety of people, animals and the environment. And they say we'll be very unlikely to achieve many significant advances in scientific understanding or the prevention and treatment of diseases without animal research. They don't think it it's possible for scientific research to be carried out without using animals. What do you say to that?
John Curtin:
I say that they're the paid lobby group that I was talking about. Their wages are paid by marshals. Marshals pay them. They're a lobby group. I'm not going to give them the light of day, not because I can't be bothered. They're a paid lobby group. Come up with one other person apart from them. It's just not good enough. So it's not true. George Bernard Shaw said anyone who wouldn't hesitate to vivisect would hardly hesitate to lie about it. But that's why these walls are secrecy coming. They're not used to exposure and when they are exposed they lie. But the main defense is silent, silent silence. Since when is silent science so?
Angela Walker:
tell me. Tell me a bit more about what's going on inside camp beagle. I've seen some undercover footage for anyone that's uh listening to this podcast. If you have a look at the video uh online on youtube, I'm going to be putting some uh some footage up there, so we've got some inside footage from inside camp beagle.
John Curtin:
Talk us through what this undercover footage shows, john okay, any image we can get is precious of inside these places, because I spoke before that wall after. The mps have got no access to mbr, the rspca have got no access to mbr, the rspca have got no access, the police haven't, the mps haven't got access. It's covered in walls of secrecy. So by an ingenious message nine foot long fishing rod with a tiny little camera we managed to get that in through one of the air vents and it's all worth it. Fear has come true.
John Curtin:
I was going to say the smell, that's the only thing that didn't come out. The noise, the dirt, remember. These dogs have never got out. There's no outside run for these dogs. They live in their own feces at your line and it's just a madhouse. So what was depicted in those images which you'll see? It's happening there now. There's no seasons, there's no exposure to any natural daylight, they're not treated as dogs, basically, and that's why they were sent to prison in Italy. Yet they can come to the UK and hide behind the Home Office. It's the Home Office who's in charge of these experiments in the UK. The Home Office.
Angela Walker:
They're in charge of the police, immigration, security, what they're doing with beagles, exactly and I know one of the reasons that they pick beagles is because they are a particularly docile breed of dog. And, um, I talked earlier about 2.76 million scientific tests on living animals in Great Britain. Those are official government figures and you know more than 4000 of those tests are on beagles because they are so passive. Just tell me about the scale that you've witnessed, because you say that you see vans coming and going. Tell me a bit about that.
John Curtin:
Two vans left this morning. I'm not at the camp at the minute. I've been bailed away for possibly contravening some drone regulations. Anyway, I'm not there at the minute but I hope to be back there for next Monday. My bail conditions are going to be changed. Two vans left there today. Two days ago another van left when they leave. We've got people up and down the country. We don't need now we've perfected it Because they only go for toxicology tests. We send people to Huntingdon. There'll be people waiting up. In Scotland it takes six hours to get from MBR to Charles River and the. Where are we now? Near 12 o'clock? They left about so they've got about three hours to go. We believe they're going to go to Charles.
Angela Walker:
River On its website, charles River Laboratories says research animals have contributed to nearly every medical breakthrough in recent history, including treatments for cancer, diabetes and AIDS, and they continue to play an essential role in the development of life-saving drugs for people and other animals. It goes on to say the welfare of the animals contributing to research is of utmost importance and a prerequisite for the accuracy, reliability and translatability of our research.
John Curtin:
They were always coming up with these wonder cures We've cured cancer. And they give you a little diagram of cowboys in india, how they're attacking diseases and they'd always say and we found this out because of mouse experiments. So people would often engage with you. The first thing they might say when you did a stall is hey, listen, my granny had cancer. I know a little boy with leukemia. But now the situation people are not saying that. So much now the trust has gone. People used to.
John Curtin:
Maybe in the 1950s and 60s and 70s the government could sort of get someone stick a suit on. I'm going to shirt and tie, stand them next to someone with a white coat and people will believe what they're saying. Those days seem to have gone. So it's an industrial process. Mbr don't have to advertise. Who wants our beagles to advertise? It process. Mbr don't have to advertise who wants our beagles to advertise. It's the same customers going back 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40. It's an industry thing. There's no UK law requiring these tests.
John Curtin:
We need to change and change is in the air. If we all go home, if we don't do anything more about these toxicology tests, guaranteed they're going to stop. We've seen lots of documents from within the industry. We've reached out to the industry and everyone just passes the book. Yes, we know, we're aware that change needs to be implemented and in fact we're going full steam ahead with that, but their timescale will be something like 20 years. These toxicology tests are doomed. So that van load that went out, two van loads that went out today. It's always been a waste of life, but it's like we're stuck in the mud. I'm kind of sick of winning all the arguments. There's no one to argue against me. Where are the professors and the scientists and the professor from Cambridge University? There's nobody there. We've won the argument, but there's no change. Change is coming.
Angela Walker:
It's interesting you say about the change, because there was a parliamentary debate in February and that was because of these public petitions against this animal testing and there was support from some MPs and Professor David Mayne from the Animals in Science Committee wrote to the Minister, Andrew Griffith, who's in charge of science, innovation and technology, after the debate, welcoming plans to reduce reliance on the use of animals in science. So it looks like this new approach methodologies without animals is moving forward. How much hope does that give you, John? Change you said it yourself change is coming, Do you feel? How hopeful do you feel?
John Curtin:
Well, I hate to use the the term, but it's painfully slow, pain in my heart and pain for the dogs that are being taken to a laboratory now as we speak, that are going to have a tube placed down their throat, perhaps a few times a day, to administer these substances. That's the pain, so painfully, painfully slow, and shame on us all for letting it to these substances. That's the pain so painfully, painfully slow, and shame on us all for letting it happen. Now we've pointed it out, forget why it happened in the past. We've tackled this now, and do you know what big difference this time now? Look, I've had 40 years. I've been involved. That site has bred beagles for 60 years. In 1990, I was arrested for raiding 82 dogs. I was arrested for raiding 82 dogs. I was sent to prison for 18 months. Other prisoners and other people couldn't believe it. What are you in for, mate, taking some dogs from a laboratory? They're like you, what? So we've got a long history in this country. It goes back over 100 years, the anti-village section movement in this country. But we're at a point now, a really frustrating point, and stuck in the mud is the best analogy.
John Curtin:
If you look at that government, that letter you talked about from david name. That's the first letter on behalf of the uk government ever where they say it's not uk law, it's the I forget what they call it in that international requirements or international regulations. Uh, what else is covered by international regulations? You know it's a nonsense. It needs looking at. This thing has never been looked at, it's just run by civil servants. Like that letter from David Mayne, they're finally talking about putting the responsibility into where it should be the Department of Science. At the minute it's the Home Secretary that writes off all the experiments and is in charge of those NBR dogs. The suffering of those dogs that goes back again. Suffering of those dogs that goes back again over 100 years. That's why the Home Office are involved. Change needs to happen.
Angela Walker:
I did contact Andrew Griffith, the Minister in Charge of Science, to see if he was available to come on. He wasn't. I did offer a selection of dates and you know I would have been happy to move the podcast so that we could hear from him, but he wasn't. I did offer a selection of dates and you know I would have been happy to move the podcast so that we could hear from him, but but he he wasn't able to make it, unfortunately.
John Curtin:
He said in parliament the day and he said it. He said it in our debate and he said that a week afterwards. The day cannot come soon enough when we put an end to the practice of animal testing. I'll quote it word for word, because I'll remember it for the rest of my life, and then a comma, if you could. But that day is not today, ugh.
Angela Walker:
Tell me about Camp Beagle, because it's like the longest running protest of its kind, isn't it? How did Camp Beagle get started? Take us back to that.
John Curtin:
Okay, in terms of protest camps, I think there's only one other one that beat, you said, of any kind. It's the only animal rights one, green and Common way back in the 80s. That went on for 20 years. That puts us like moderates, but we've been there for nearly three years. It happened by accident. It happened on a small demonstration.
John Curtin:
One woman just said, when it came to leaving, because when you go down the side, all the dogs are in. They're in soundproof buildings, but when you go near the air vents, the sound escapes and it's kind of it's so shocking. And this woman just said I'm not leaving, I can't go home. And she stayed the night and someone else heard that she'd stayed the night. There was two of them that stayed and then the word got round and then a few more people turned up.
John Curtin:
I tried to keep away from the place Because, like I said, I had that history and I thought, oh no, there's a camp. If I go there, I'm going to get stuck. That's exactly the side of the road. I can't believe we're still there and there's a team of us. Like I said, I'm not there at the moment, but there's a team of people there at the moment. We live by the side of the road. It's extremely tough. We get lots of love and we get lots of support, but you're right next to this horrible, horrible beagle factory, so it's a really difficult place to live. I'd go so strong as to say it's broken me. I'm a bit of a broken person sitting here because of the experience I've had there. It's a very tough gig and I've spent too much time there.
Angela Walker:
And I know you're not at camp at the moment because you were arrested quite recently. Tell us about what happened then.
John Curtin:
I've flown the drone for nearly nearly every day, I'd say since I've been at the camp. Well, I couldn't fly a drone when I got there, took me a little while or so. For two and a half years I've flown the drone every day. We've got mbr spent three million pounds to try and get rid of us at the high court with civil injunctions they're desperate to try and stop us flying the drone. It's a little drone.
John Curtin:
There's many drone regulations, but if you get one below 249 grams there's hardly any regulation. So, for example, we've got police officers who come to the camp. Maybe they want to ask us some questions about some forthcoming donors. I'd happily chat to the police while I'm flying the drone. Those same police officers one of the same police officers that I routinely chat to. They just turned up in a sting operation one day three of them. I was standing there as soon as I landed the drone. They said we want to speak to you in connection with the drone.
John Curtin:
When I landed the drone the next thing I know I was on the ground with handcuffs tied behind my back, to the point there was blood when I got down to the police station, on my wrist when they stood me up. The next thing I looked to the right three vans the vans that come when they collect the dogs. They arrived so it was like a sting operation of the police to stop me capturing the dogs being loaded into the vans and then the police have bailed me away. But it's the second time I've been bailed away. Um, I think it's a bit of a police tactic actually. I was found not guilty on the charges the first time and with these drone regulations I'd be happy to go to court tomorrow and be dealt with, perhaps, if I was guilty, by a suitable fine not being bailed away. But I'm hoping I'm getting. I'm applying to court next mond Monday to get my bowel conditions changed and I'm suitably rested and I hope to be back there on Monday.
Angela Walker:
What can you see when you get your drone up over that site? Mbr Acres site, John, what can be seen?
John Curtin:
It's a Beagle factory. Everything they do, I remember there's no outside runs, the dogs never get out, but occasionally they move dog from shed to shed, and those moments we capture when they're in a trolley. They've now even covered the trolleys up, though, and even where they load the vans they've now built a canopy to hide that process, but still, you know, we fly the drone just because we want to know what's going on.
Angela Walker:
Now I've seen some footage, some undercover footage, taken by someone who went inside that site, um, as a worker, and they and they were shocked and they took some some film. They did some filming while they were in there and there was film of puppies. Uh, tell, talk us through that, because I know you've seen that footage and one of the things that upsets you is about the young pups. So just tell us a bit about that.
John Curtin:
Yeah, I mean there have been so few whistleblowers over the years that have come forward. You think because people, when they get jobs for these places, the advert says do you want a qualification in learning how to look after animals? It doesn't say anything about animal experiments. So you go and get the job and the analogy I use is an old people's home where abuse is going on. You know, if you went to work there and it's like institutionalized cruelty happens and it's something you either put up with when you first start If you put up with it, then you could be there for the long run and you're going to bury what you see or you just reject it and then leave and blow the whistle. So few people have blown that whistle, I think they bury it so deep. But one woman came forward and before she left she got some images on her phone, very simple images of her just walking down the corridor, but from those you pick up the noise, the mayhem, and she told some some. She didn't tell any stories about kicking puppies or punching them, but things like the story she told of a little dog, a little puppy called mini, that that puppy was in trouble because it's the runt of the litter from 4pm to 8am 4pm today. All the workers leave. There's no one overnight to look after the dogs at a weekend and I even think I'm making this up I still can't believe it. It shocked me when I first saw it over 2 and a half years ago. On a Saturday, the workers leave at 11am. They leave at 11am and they don't come back until 8am. What about little runts? What about little mini? Anyone knows puppies.
John Curtin:
Puppies are taken away at six weeks from their mothers. They're put under a red heat lamp. Do you know what they're offered On film? Like a bucket of dried food which they just sit next to and look at. You know what Puppies are like? Six, seven weeks? They're voracious. You know, make them some wheat a bit. So little dogs like Minnie. She wasn't able to catch her on film. She caught one little image of Minnie it's a little runt and she tried to take that dog home. She asked him if he could take it home. But there's no procedure there to help, to give dogs extra help, things like that Even let's think about this. Dogs are taking it six weeks old, say, when it comes to their first weekend. Then dogs will go from 11 o'clock until 8am the next morning, six, seven week old puppy. So yeah, very precious images. She couldn't handle it anymore. She was disgusted. She'd worked in a lot of dog places and she just couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Angela Walker:
But they'll find someone else now let's talk about this group called animal rising, because they've actually broken in and, uh, taken some dogs out of that site. They've really kindly said that I can use their images, so let's talk about animal rising and what they've been up to yeah, I can't put it and think of it in any other way except hallelujah, I can't.
John Curtin:
When I went to prison for taking, those people were saying what are you in prison for, mate? And I'd say taking dogs out of a laboratory? I've still yet to come across a human being. That's actually said to me, apart from the judge. Oh my god, that's terrible. Like what the Animal Rising people? I can't. It's not a crime technically and even the police refused to see it as a crime.
John Curtin:
So Animal Rising, they're a group, they're sort of the new generation of activists, and back in the day, when you said it was balaclava, we'd appear out of the darkness and disappear. Back in the day we used to do balaclavas, we'd peer out the darkness and disappear back into the shadows. Animal Rising do it in the open, no balaclavas. After they do actions, they hand themselves into the police station. So they came, they did an action. They broke in On the first occasion. They took five dogs Even though there were security guards and stuff on site. They were so determined. The first time they did it they hadn't even got through defence and they had the distraction demo at the front. They could hear security guards watching them even before they broke through defence. But they were that committed they went ahead and did it and they're quite well trained. So there's no violence or aggression, but they did the job. Do you know what they did? They were handing themselves into the police station, three of them. The next morning they said hello, officer, I'd like to report myself for what you would consider a burglary, some theft of what you would consider as property.
John Curtin:
The CPS two weeks later said they were unable to charge them. Do you know what? The official reason given was Lack of evidence. Lack of evidence, they didn't want a court case. Animal Rising came back. This time they took 20 dogs. The police managed to get two of those dogs back, love and Libby. The police, actually there was a huge campaign to please, please, please don't send them back to NBR, and between the police and the Home Office they both blame each other. Those dogs will return to NBR. So to me those were definitely the two happiest moments of the entire time at the camp. The two most important.
John Curtin:
What's more important than liberation? Nothing is more important, nothing is more beautiful. But that's good for those five dogs and those. I was going to say 20 dogs, but it was 18. But you talked before about millions of animal experiments, so you can keep rescuing these dogs. It's very difficult logistically, but that can keep doing it, but it's not going to stop it. It's a very beautiful thing to do. For the dogs themselves themselves it means everything but the so let's, let's go ahead from all angles, and that's one of the angles. Like I said, there, I felt to my knees and I cried my eyes out on both occasions, you know, when I got the news and they didn't tell us have a comment, and they didn't need to, they just came, they saw and they conquered you've been at that site for nearly three years.
Angela Walker:
John, you're going to be going back to camp beagle soon. How long are you going to stay there for?
John Curtin:
good question. And when I normally do the live street and no surrender, I never give up. I kind of uh, I'm like because I've been using that language so much and I'm broken, but because there's a team of us and we can look each other in the eyes. It's not a slogan. We're going to stay at that camp until NBR shuts down, and as a business. Remember, they came here because they had to leave Italy. They lost in their last annual report they lost £800,000. They lost £800,000.
John Curtin:
They came here to make money. They've spent £3 million which hasn't come out of NBR's budget. We haven't. We cannot find out who's paying their legal fees. It'll be the main company of NBR in America, but they've lost £800,000. We're the nightmare neighbours from Hellforum. We ain't going nowhere. No one's there to defend them. It's not looking good, but I don't know.
John Curtin:
But however long it takes, I can't imagine giving up. It really is a kick in the stomach when the vans come and go and because we're there and it's all under cameras, we deliberately don't break the law and stay within the law so we can maintain our presence there. But it's a kick in the teeth, in the stomach and a stab in the heart. We've got no intention of packing up. When we get through a winter, it's like, oh my God, we did it, we ain't doing next winter. It's really every year I don't use that normally, this I don't. We just say never give up as soon as you asked, because people don't really ask, they just believe our slogan. But after the winter you're like no, I can't do this again, but we're mad, and so I think think we're mad in a good way.
Angela Walker:
John, thank you so much for talking to me and for sharing your story and all your concerns about what's going on at MBR Acres. Thanks very much.
John Curtin:
Thank you.
Angela Walker:
You've been listening to Angela Walker in Conversation. I hope you've enjoyed the show. Don't forget to subscribe. You can follow me on YouTube, I'm on instagram, I'm on x and you can find more human interest stories on my website, angela walker reportscom. Until next time, goodbye.