Prince Harry and Meghan have adopted one of the 4,000 rescued beagles freed from a Virginia testing facility. The seven-year-old dog named Mamma Mia will live with the couple and their two young children, Archie and Lilibet.
According to the Beagle Freedom Project, Mama Mia will be joining another beagle named Guy and a Labrador retriever named Pula. The seven-acre mansion in Montecito, California is also the home to rescued chickens from a factory farm.
The beagles had been originally bred at the Envigo facility and then sold to pharmaceutical and biotech research facilities for experiments. In July, after dozens of violations reported over the past two years, the breeding facility was shuttered, and the dogs were rescued with the help of the Humane Society of the United States. According to the statement issued by the HSUS, the organization connected with shelter and rescue partners after the transfer plan was approved in order to place the dogs in homes. The rescues had 60 days to remove all of the dogs.
According to the LA Times, Mama Mia and eight of her 7-week-old puppies had been taken to the Beagle Freedom Project along with other rescued beagles and were already being offered to the public for adoption. Shannon Keith, who runs the organization, stated Meghan called her personally and arranged for a visit to the rescue facility.
The duchess is holding Mia and was like, ‘We’re adopting her. She was like ‘No, we don’t want a Christmas puppy … We want ones we can help who are older’.
LA Times Twitter
Mia had spent her entire life in a cage at Envigo and was forced to give birth to litter after litter. And as Mia went to her new home, she chose a toy fox that she played with on her trip.
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Rescued kitten discovers toys.
[…] Just last week, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan adopted a senior beagle named Momma Mia. Read more about that heartwarming story here. […]