Victoria Silvstedt’s Plea for the AstraZeneca Beagles

Swedish siren and former Playboy model Victoria Silvstedt was horrified when she heard that more than 300 dogs may be shipped from her home country to UK laboratories for cruel animal tests.

Upon learning about pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca’s plans to consign hundreds of beagles from their breeding facility in Örkelljunga to the torture of animal testing, Victoria immediately fired off a letter to the company’s board imploring its members to show the dogs mercy. She wrote:

Anyone who lives with a dog, as I do, knows that dogs are thinking, feeling individuals who do not deserve to be caged, scared and used as disposable test tubes with tails. They reward our care and attention with boundless loyalty and adoration, and we should surely not betray them. In experiments, dogs are often forced to ingest massive quantities of toxic substances, including pesticides, leading to immense suffering before they are finally killed.

Please do the right thing and send the remaining dogs to loving homes rather than to heartless labs.

The company has yet to respond to Victoria or to the more than 10,000 PETA supporters who have also contacted it to ask for the beagles’ release. Add your name to the petition here, and show AstraZeneca how many people care about the fate of these young dogs.
Image: Tabercil / CC BY-SA 3.0