Emotional Video

[k9angel]

A pack of dogs that had never known life outside a cage played in the sunshine and sniffed the sodden grass after they were rescued by an animal rights group.

The tear-jerking video, that has become an internet sensation, shows a total of 40 beagles taking their first hesitant steps into freedom and open air with looks of amazement in their big puppy dog eyes.

The dogs were set free from lab in Spain as part of a rescue operation by Animal Rescue Media Education (ARME), a nonprofit organisation.

The video shows the cautious canines bewilderingly placing their paws on the grass after their cages are opened.

However, it takes some of the dogs more than 10 minutes to muster the courage to leave their cages.

So far, the group has rescued 72 dogs, with 40 arriving in Los Angeles this week to be put up for adoption.

The rest of the dogs had already been adopted in Europe.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/12200640/Emotional-video-shows-rescued-dogs-set-free-for-the-first-time

It made me cry.

[Marion 01]

Lovely video, thank goodness for rescuers. Poor buggars looked like they couldn't even walk properly from being caged up all the time, what a life, and what we humans do to dogs, and animals in general is disgusting to say the least. Their eyes tell the whole story. At least they are now free.

[Beltar]

Such beautiful dogs. At least they now will get to enjoy being loved and cared for.

[redangel]

heartwarming...but sad knowing that they are the tip of the iceberg.too many dogs are treated this way.

[WreckitWhippet]

More animal rights garbage and they really are going to have to try a lot harder than that, any fool can see that there were dogs stressed by travel.

It shows nothing more than dogs is good condition being loaded into a van, in small vari kennels and being stacked on top of each other.

The dogs were seeking human contact, they were curious and showing an interest in what was going on around them, there were some wagging tails and there was certainly some sniffing.

Dogs fresh off long haul flights, are certainly stiff and take some time to warm up when they get to the other end. Put a dog in a trailer for a few hours and they take some time to stretch too.

Animal rights feed us such bullcrap and sadly there are people out there who believe it.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Pav Lova

[Steve]

Looks like normal beagle behaviour to me. Clearly they have been loved and handled and want to be in human company - per haps the humans lived in the cages with them.

[huski]

When I've flown my beagle she jumped straight out of the crate and was right into beagle business mode, if I had opened the crate door and she had reacted like those beagles did I would have been worried.

[Steve]

When I've flown my beagle she jumped straight out of the crate and was right into beagle business mode, if I had opened the crate door and she had reacted like those beagles did I would have been worried.

Most beagles which come here via transport for a stud service etc hesitate like that - new people new place etc.Might have something to do with other dogs around too I guess. Mine are not in cages and have grass but if I take some of them to the vet etc they wont just jump straight out when I open the crate door. They do when they come home.

[huski]

maybe Daisy has stronger nerves than the average beagle, either way if my dog took ten minutes to get out of its crate like that I would be concerned.

[Blonde_Phoenix]

Videos like this always rub me a little up the wrong way, they really need to be taken with a grain of salt (or at least a little objectivity). The easy conclusion when you see the sad puppy eyes is to point the finger at the nasty researchers, but there is a lot more to the story than that.

As a scientist who has worked in animal research (I can only speak in regards to the situation in Australia) I can assure everyone that research involving animals is very strictly regulated in particularly in regards to animal welfare. No project involving animals can happen without a huge amount of justification and the auditing system will make most people heads spin. I am incredibly proud of what our research achieved we made a real difference to animal husbandry both here and in third world countries (if anyone is that way incline I happy to bombard them with examples and papers ;) ).

Commenting directly on the video, physically the dogs appear perfectly healthy to me, in regards to their behavior one must remember that these dog have not been raised as family pets. I find it a bit disheartening that the the video implies some wrong doing by the research organisation, when to me it seems they have done the right thing by these dogs in releasing them to find home at the completion of their project .

I hope all these pups find new and loving homes and live out the rest of their lives spoilt rotten.

[Steve]

Videos like this always rub me a little up the wrong way, they really need to be taken with a grain of salt (or at least a little objectivity). The easy conclusion when you see the sad puppy eyes is to point the finger at the nasty researchers, but there is a lot more to the story than that.

As a scientist who has worked in animal research (I can only speak in regards to the situation in Australia) I can assure everyone that research involving animals is very strictly regulated in particularly in regards to animal welfare. No project involving animals can happen without a huge amount of justification and the auditing system will make most people heads spin. I am incredibly proud of what our research achieved we made a real difference to animal husbandry both here and in third world countries (if anyone is that way incline I happy to bombard them with examples and papers ;) ).

Commenting directly on the video, physically the dogs appear perfectly healthy to me, in regards to their behavior one must remember that these dog have not been raised as family pets. I find it a bit disheartening that the the video implies some wrong doing by the research organisation, when to me it seems they have done the right thing by these dogs in releasing them to find home at the completion of their project .

I hope all these pups find new and loving homes and live out the rest of their lives spoilt rotten.

There is no doubt that dogs especially beagles world wide suffer for science. Those with low drive and docile temperaments are well suited to being managed easier so they are often bred and selected for these qualities rather than high drive.High drive beagles make horrible pets too. You have to take the word for it that they have never seen grass or the sun and because of that we assume their reaction is because they are not aware of what it is they will be walking on but they are in good nick and obviously well socialised with people and each other and there could be nummerous reasons as to why they didnt just bing out of their crates. Ive had some which are too precious to walk on wet grass and when its wet will poop on the concrete path so they dont get their feet wet and that had nothing to do with whether they had seen grass before. We went a couple of years without the kids or the dogs seeing rain and around here grass might mean a bindi patch or a dozen cat heads in your feet if you go too far afield. In drought no one - nothing is familiar with grass. There are a lot worse things that can and do happen to beagles in research and those ones have clearly been shown human kindness and socialisation. The sad puppy eyes cant be counted on either because thats how we breed them.

I just think they have said certain things and emphasised that particular scene when they could have just as easily written it up to show how great these dogs are and how well they have been treated and looked after and how well they quickly adjust to the change in conditions and circumstances.