Dow AgroSciences, a division of DowDuPont, will stop testing pesticides on beagles, according to The Humane Society of the United States.
DowDuPont had been advocating to do away with this type of testing for years, but persisted as some countries still demanded certain tests that are, by many standards, unnecessary, not to mention cruel. An HSUS undercover operation in the Michigan testing facility, Charles River Laboratories, found that several dozen of the dogs were being poisoned, force-fed fungicide, and killed in order to test pesticides and pharmaceutical products that are sold abroad.
On Monday, after obtaining a waiver on products sold in Brazil, where the testing is still required, Dow AgroSciences (Corteva Agriscience) announced it would cease the one-year-long animal testing program.
BREAKING: Dow AgroSciences (@corteva) announced it has ended the dog test we recently exposed in our undercover investigation. We are grateful they have taken this step, & hope they will work with us to re-home the animals so they get to experience life outside of a laboratory. Pic.twitter.com/Kf6ewQITTT
— The Humane Society of the United States (@HumaneSociety) March 18, 2019
Corteva said in a statement that the company would make every effort to re-home the beagles. The HSUS wrote in its own statement that it hopes as one of the nation’s leading animal protection organizations, they will be able to continue to partner with the DowDuPont division to help “get the dogs out of the laboratory and to our shelter and rescue partners so that they can be adopted into loving homes.”
DowDuPont became the world’s largest chemical company after Dow and DuPont completed a $130 billion merger in August 2017. The company subsequently said it would break into three pieces focusing on agriculture, material sciences, and speciality products.