Second Historic Acquittal In Animal Testing Dog Rescue Trial
- Animal Rising Press
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
This afternoon, following over two weeks of trial and deliberation spanning three days, a jury at Peterborough Crown Court has acquitted five defendants charged with burglary after the rescue of 18 beagle puppies from MBR Acres in December 2022 [1].
MBR Acres is understood to be the UK’s only facility breeding dogs for the animal testing industry and has been subject to massive public and professional scrutiny in recent years.
This concludes the four trials in this case, with defendants in the first and third trials receiving convictions, and those in the second and fourth (this one) being acquitted [2].
The not-guilty verdicts are historic and have been seen as a massive blow to MBR Acres’ operations, with juries siding with the defendants and rejecting burglary convictions. Naturalist and TV presenter Chris Packham featured in the trial, providing character evidence in defence of Rose Patterson, Animal Rising Director.
The verdict comes amidst massive public and celebrity condemnation of MBR Acres, with 170,000 signing a petition to shut the site down and dozens of MPs signing an open letter with the same ask [3] [4].
As the British public continues to be dismayed at the use of beagle puppies for animal testing, Rose Patterson, John Sasportas, Jennifer D’Netto, Dev Vyas, and Andrew Houghton have all been cleared of burglary by a jury this Afternoon. This is despite all of them admitting their part in rescuing dogs from MBR Acres in December 2022.
Rose Patterson, Animal Rising Director and Defendant, said:
“Today, the jury decided that rescuing puppies from cruelty is not a crime. This verdict says something about who we are as a nation. We are a nation of animal lovers. A group of ordinary people agreed that what happened behind those closed doors at MBR Acres should not be hidden from the world.
I am proud of what we did. We were honest. We showed the world everything. And the jury saw that. But my thoughts are with the beagles still trapped there. Beagles that are still being bred, still being bled, and still dying in concrete cages.”
This trial concludes the landmark case relating to the December 2022 rescue, with a fifth trial for the rescue of five dogs in June 2022 scheduled for March 16th at Cambridge Crown Court. In this most recent trial, defendants successfully argued that their conduct was not “dishonest” under the Theft Act 1968 and that their actions, as a result, were lawful.
Last Monday, an open letter signed by over 50 politicians, public figures, and animal organisations was sent to the Home Secretary, asking her to immediately close the facility. Signatories included Dame Joanna Lumley, Jonathan Ross, and several dozen MPs.
Chris Packham, Naturalist and TV Presenter, said:
“Rose's commitment to animal welfare is not new or performative. It's central to who she is and how she lives. Over the last two years, I've seen her consistently make choices aligned with those values, often at great, great personal cost. She's not someone driven by ideology for its own sake, but through a genuine, deep-rooted concern for suffering and a desire to ensure the community has the right to know. It's in that spirit that I understand why she entered MBR Acres, rescued the puppies, and got them to safety.
Rose’s honesty in a world where so many people would rather deceive themselves or others is frankly heroic, and I believe the rest of Britain can see that too. We must continue to call for the closure of MBR Acres. It is a blight on our nations, on our characters, and on our consciences.”
A similar facility in Italy, Green Hill, operated by the same parent company, was shut down in 2015, and senior employees were jailed after undercover footage revealed illegal breaches of regulation on the site. MBR Acres, itself, has had undercover footage of conditions captured and published in national newspapers in the UK [5].
ENDS
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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.
High-quality pictures and videos: https://show.pics.io/animal-rising-breaking-news
Footage from inside MBR Acres: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dJhwIlmJ5uR9vwuKXGJ3VT3sxYmX0JT-?usp=drive_link
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.
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Notes To The Editor