Beagles arrive at Richmond SPCA

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Around 90 beagles from the Envigo breeding facility in Cumberland arrived at the Richmond SPCA on Friday morning.

Four receiving agencies are working with the SPCA to help foster and find these dogs a forever home. This includes Richmond SPCA, Virginia SPCA, Williamsburg’s Home for Hounds and PETA.

“Richmond SPCA is serving as a hub for the arrival today of about 90 dogs who were taken from Envigo facility, and 10 are going to stay here at Richmond SPCA, and three other agencies are taking the remainder dogs, and they’re going all over the state of Virginia,” CEO of Richmond SPCA Tamsen Kingry said.

According to court documents, inspectors allege beagles at the Envigo breeding facility lived in horrific conditions and were given food filled with maggots and feces. Now, pups will undergo a health assessment before they’re ready to adopt.

Home for Hounds volunteer Bob Tubbs says their agency will take around 30 dogs back to Williamsburg.

“The dogs are going to be processed. They’re going to be washed and clean. They’re going to be evaluated medically and socially, and they’re going to end up being a part of somebody’s family,” Tubbs said.

Tubbs says they already have families lined up for these beagles, but dogs will be up for adoption depending on their health status and evaluations.

PETA’s Senior Vice President of the Cruelty Investigations Department, Daphna Nachminovitch, says today is a victory for these beagles and those who work tirelessly to rescue them. She says each dog is deserving of a forever home.

“These dogs will never ever be experimented on. They will never be warehoused or deprived of anything again. They will not know loneliness or fear, which is all they had at that facility,” Nachminovitch said.

Nachminovitch says there’s still more work to be done.

She says this is the second wave of beagles to be rescued, but there are thousands more in need of help.

Nachminovitch also expects Envigo to face criminal or federal charges in the future.

Copyright 2022 WWBT. All rights reserved.

Send it to 12 here.

Want NBC12’s top stories in your inbox each morning? Subscribe here.