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50+ MPs, Celebrities, and Organisations Call For Immediate Closure Of MBR Acres

Photo taken at a demonstration against adding Life Sciences to Key National Infrastructure (5/1/26)
Photo taken at a demonstration against adding Life Sciences to Key National Infrastructure (5/1/26)

  • Last night, a letter signed by dozens of cross-party MPs, celebrities including Dame Joanna Lumley and Amanda Holden, and animal organisations such as Animal Rising and PETA, was sent to the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood MP [1].

  • The letter calls for an immediate closure of MBR Acres, the only site in the UK breeding dogs for the animal testing industry, alongside the safe rehoming of all the beagles there.

  • This comes after years of campaigning against the site, with more than 170,000 people signing a petition to close it down [2].

  • MBR Acres is licensed to bleed healthy dogs to death, by directly inserting needles into their heart and surrounding blood vessels, and also to harvest their organs [3].


In the latest blow for animal testing in the UK, and more specifically the use of beagle dogs, public figures from across politics, television, academia, and more have united to call on the Government to “let Britain lead the world into a future without animal testing” and close the only site in the country breeding dogs for the industry.


Rose Patterson, Animal Rising Director, said:
"Dozens of public figures have added their voices to the open letter, and over 170,000 people have signed the petition to shut down MBR Acres. The British public is united on this and expects change at the highest level.
We call ourselves a nation of animal lovers, but MBR Acres holds a licence to bleed healthy dogs to death by inserting needles directly into their hearts. Those two things cannot coexist. The Government has a mandate to act, and shutting down MBR Acres is the easiest first step they could take."

The letter is the latest in a series of escalating campaigns calling on the Government to take genuine steps towards phasing out animal testing in the UK, as per their manifesto pledge in the lead-up to the 2024 General Election. MPs from Labour, the Liberal Democrats, SNP, Green Party, and Your Party have all signed to show their support for the campaign.


Carla Denyer MP, Green Party Member of the House of Commons for Bristol Central, said:
“Is this another Labour U-turn? On 22nd December, the government published its Animal Welfare Strategy, which recommitted to ‘phase out animal testing’, but on 11th February, the government redefined ‘Key National Infrastructure’ in the Public Order Act to include animal testing sites. 
The charitable interpretation is that the government’s left hand doesn’t know what its right hand is doing, or more concerningly, that they are trying to tell the people what they want to hear while quietly acting in the interest of big businesses instead. 
I hope the government sees that the route to regaining public support involves reversing this decision and closing down MBR Acres for good.”

MBR Acres and their parent company, Marshall BioResources, have been under intense scrutiny for decades. Most notably, in 2015, an Italian facility run by the company, Green Hill, was shut down, and 3,000 dogs were rehomed after undercover footage revealed horrific conditions at the site. Three senior employees of the company were also jailed [4]. Multiple instances of undercover footage showing the conditions at MBR Acres have also been released since 2021 [5].


Currently, the fourth of five trials relating to two separate rescues of beagle puppies from MBR Acres is ongoing. The previous three trials have returned one acquittal and two convictions, with sentences ranging from 18-month suspended sentences to conditional discharges [6].


ENDS


Word count: 577


About Animal Rising

The group has used a variety of civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action tactics, notably blockading McDonald's distribution centres in May 2021, blockading dairy industry sites in September 2022, rescuing 23 beagle puppies from the animal testing industry in 2022, delaying the Grand National race in 2023, rescuing lambs belonging to King Charles II in May 2023, and carrying out the UK’s largest undercover farm investigation in 2024.

All images and videos in this file, on our social media, and website can be used with credit to Animal Rising under ‘fair use’ for the purposes of reporting.

For more information or further comments, please contact:

Nathan (Press Back Office)  +44 1225 29 6691


Notes To The Editor









 
 

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