Fifty Years.
One Facility.
Final Phase.
Beagles have been bred at this Cambridgeshire site for half a century — up to two thousand inside at any one time, most sold for laboratory toxicity testing at around sixteen weeks old. The campaign that has worked to end that has reached its final phase. This page is the public record of how we got here — six phases, in order, every conventional route exhausted — and the open letter to MBR Acres that sits at the end of it.
Save the MBR Beagles is an independent UK civic campaign calling for the lawful closure of MBR Acres through licence revocation, parliamentary action, and public pressure on the laboratory supply chain.
The Country Agrees.
The public verdict has been in for years. Petitions delivered. Celebrities, MPs and organisations signed. Hundreds of thousands of names on the record.
121,000+
E-petition 736578 · Hansard Westminster Hall 27 April 2026
500,000+
Combined across petitions targeting MBR / dog testing
50+
Public figures on the Animal Rising open letter, April 2025
Animal Rising’s petition to shut down MBR Acres is open for signatures. Add your name if you haven’t — every signature still counts as a data point. But be clear-eyed about what it does and doesn’t do. Signatures alone have not moved this. That is why we are at Phase 05.
Public supporters of closing MBR Acres
The following 53 public figures, parliamentarians and organisation leaders have already added their names to an open letter calling for MBR Acres’ immediate closure (Animal Rising, April 2025).
Celebrities & public figures (15)
Dame Joanna Lumley
Actress and Presenter
Jonathan Ross OBE
TV Presenter and Broadcaster
Chris Packham CBE
Broadcaster and Environmental Campaigner
Amanda Holden
Presenter, Actress, and Singer
Olivia Bowen
Media Personality
Lucy Watson
Model and TV Personality
Peter Singer
Professor of Bioethics, Princeton
J.M. Coetzee
Nobel Prize-winning author
John Banville
Author
Jake Lambert
Comedian
Dr Richard D. Ryder
Retired Trustee, Chair and President of the RSPCA
Gail Porter
Broadcaster and Animal Rights Advocate
Mat Fraser
Actor and Writer
Abbie Dewhurst
Weather and Climate Presenter
Alexis Gauthier
Michelin-Starred Vegan Chef
Parliamentarians (29) — Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green, SNP, Independent
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb
Green, House of Lords
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
Green, House of Lords
Rt Hon. Lord McNally
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords
Siân Berry MP
Green, Brighton Pavilion
Adrian Ramsay MP
Green, Waveney Valley
Carla Denyer MP
Green, Bristol Central
Dr Ellie Chowns MP
Green, North Herefordshire
Caroline Lucas
Former Green MP for Brighton Pavilion
Will Stone MP
Labour, Swindon North
Neil Duncan-Jordan MP
Labour, Poole
Ruth Jones MP
Labour, Newport West and Islwyn
Matt Bishop MP
Labour, Forest of Dean
Chris Hinchliff MP
Labour, North East Hertfordshire
Rachael Maskell MP
Labour, York Central
Brian Leishman MP
Labour, Alloa and Grangemouth
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP
Labour, Clapham and Brixton Hill
Terry Jermy MP
Labour, South West Norfolk
Kim Johnson MP
Labour, Liverpool Riverside
Douglas McAllister MP
Labour, West Dunbartonshire
Tan Dhesi MP
Labour, Slough
Nadia Whittome MP
Labour, Nottingham East
Richard Burgon MP
Labour, Leeds East
Kerry McCarthy MP
Labour, Bristol East
Christine Jardine MP
Liberal Democrat, Edinburgh West
Liz Jarvis MP
Liberal Democrat, Eastleigh
Zarah Sultana MP
Your Party, Coventry South
Seamus Logan MP
SNP, Aberdeenshire North and Moray East
Iqbal Mohamed MP
Independent, Dewsbury and Batley
Alex Easton MP
Independent, North Down
Animal-protection organisations (9)
Ingrid Newkirk
Founder, PETA
Rose Patterson
Director, Animal Rising
Mark Westcombe
Director, Animal Think Tank
Claire Palmer
Founder, Animal Justice Project
Laura Lisa Hellwig
Managing Director, VIVA!
Nina May
Founder and Editor, Wunderdog Magazine
Libby Peppiat
CEO, The Vegan Society
Sue Coe
Artist Activist
Melanie Joy, PhD
Founding President, Beyond Carnism
The public has spoken. Many times. We don’t need more signatures — we need MBR to listen.
Camp Beagle. Five Years At The Gate.
The world's longest continuous animal-rights vigil. Outside MBR Acres since June 2021. Documenting every vehicle in, every vehicle out.
The gate
The encampment
The peopleContinuous presence
Year One
Year Two
Year Three
Year Four
Year Five
And counting.
Camp Beagle has been the on-the-ground witness for nearly five years. Logging deliveries to Charles River, Labcorp and Sequani. Documenting the inside of an industry that has never wanted to be seen. Lawful, present, persistent. Camp isn’t going anywhere — and the longer it stays, the harder MBR’s position becomes.
Camp Beagle established outside MBR Acres, Wyton, Cambridgeshire, June 2021 · 2026 Lush Prize shortlist · Images: thecampbeagle.com
Five years of evidence. Filed in plain sight.
We Have Marched. We Have Been Counted.
More than a decade of demos, vigils and national days of action at MBR's gate and across the UK. Sustained, lawful, visible — and never enough on their own.
At the gate
Next demonstration at the gate
Sunday 21 June 2026
11am · MBR Acres, PE28 2DT
Save the Dogs UK will be there to support the demo and to make an announcement. If you can get to the gate — please come.
This is not our event. It has been organised independently by other groups, and we are crediting them for it. Demos like this have happened, lawfully, at this site for years — they are part of why we are now at Phase 05.
Camp Beagle and a range of independent activist groups have held lawful presence at this site for over five years. National days of action have brought hundreds to the gate, repeatedly. This is not a moment of public attention — it’s a sustained civil-society effort that has refused to go away. And still: the facility breeds 2,000 puppies a year.
We have marched. We have gathered. We have been counted. Repeatedly. The gate has not opened.
The world is closing in on the laboratory-beagle industry.
MBR Acres Ltd is a UK subsidiary of MFG International, which sits beneath Marshall BioResources in New York. This is an American multinational running a British beagle farm.
The same Marshall group runs MBR New York in the United States, currently the subject of an ongoing campaign by Save the Dogs USA. Separately, another US beagle-breeding facility — Ridglan Farms in Wisconsin, an independently-owned company — agreed in April 2026 to release its 1,500 dogs to rescue and wind down, ending a multi-year US campaign.
The picture is unmistakable: the laboratory-beagle industry is shrinking, on multiple fronts, in multiple countries, at the same time. Closing down MBR Cambridgeshire isn’t a UK-only story. It’s the British front of a global push — and that push is winning ground year on year.
Parliament Heard. Government Refused.
Westminster Hall, 27 April 2026. Eleven separate MPs from every party in attendance — Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Green — spoke in favour of ending dog testing. The minister offered £75 million for research and a vision statement. That was it.
“Any move to end animal testing would be welcomed by many of our constituents.”
— Irene Campbell · Lab · North Ayrshire and Arran — APPG chair · Opening the debate
“It would be extremely naive to believe that that legislation was introduced for any reason other than to address the presence and actions of Camp Beagle.”
— Ben Obese-Jecty · Con · Huntingdon — MBR Acres’ own local MP · On the KNI Statutory Instrument
“When we cannot be sure that it is effective, testing on animals is not science — it is just violence.”
— Adam Dance · LD · Yeovil
“Over 90% of drugs that appear safe and effective in animals never make it through to approval.”
— Adrian Ramsay · Green · Waveney Valley
“The system is failing both animals and humans. We have the evidence, we have the technology, and we have the public backing.”
— Adrian Ramsay · Green · Waveney Valley
“Scientists doing tests on mice just in case they spot something fascinating seems completely wrong.”
— Kerry McCarthy · Lab · Bristol East
“Some of us voted against the effort to quell protests against the site; it seemed a case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.”
— Kerry McCarthy · Lab · Bristol East · On the vote to criminalise Camp Beagle
“I am wholly opposed to animal testing in all its forms; I believe it should be phased out across the board to the maximum extent possible.”
— Bradley Thomas · Con · Bromsgrove
“A 35% reduction five years away is not ambitious enough, and it has not been put on a statutory footing.”
— Gideon Amos · LD · Taunton and Wellington
“Animal testing should be ended as soon as possible and this debate should spur the Government into doing a lot more.”
— Gideon Amos · LD · Taunton and Wellington
“The Government have authorised the use of more than 6.5 million animals in experiments over the coming years.”
— Olly Glover · LD · Liberal Democrat spokesperson
All quotes verbatim from the Westminster Hall debate on e-petition 736578, 27 April 2026.
Read the full Hansard transcriptThe government’s response — in their own words
Ian Murray, Minister of State (DSIT). Not the Home Office.
“We want to replace animals in science wherever possible.”
“Backed by £75 millionof funding to accelerate alternative methods.”
“Use of dogs in experimental procedures decreased by 29% compared with 2023.”
“A world in which the use of animals in science is eliminated in all but very exceptional circumstances.”
What the minister did NOT say
- · No mention of MBR Acres.
- · No statutory target with a date.
- · No response on the forced swim test.
- · No response on the KNI regulations targeting Camp Beagle.
- · No engagement with the 121,000 petitioners’ actual ask: statutory diversion of funding to non-animal methodologies.
Parliament heard us. Hansard records it. The government will not act. That is where the conventional route ends.
An Open Letter To MBR Acres.
A direct, public ask: meet us. Talk. Negotiate a peaceful close-down — the Ridglan model. The full letter is on the table.
Hand-delivery countdown
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Days
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Hours
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Min
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When this timer reaches zero, the letter will be hand-delivered to MBR Acres in person. The full text becomes public at the same moment. The handover will be live-streamed.
To the Directors, MBR Acres Ltd
We are writing to offer MBR Acres a way out.
.
.
Full text revealed at the moment of hand-delivery.
The deadline
We have asked MBR Acres for a substantive response within four weeks of receiving this letter. That is enough time to consult legal counsel and reply in good faith. It is also short enough that silence cannot be mistaken for cooperation.
For every week that passes without a reply, more journalists will read this letter. More MPs will ask questions about it. The cost to MBR of staying silent does not stay still.
And neither does the cost to the dogs. Every week of silence is a week inside. Puppies are being born into the facility. Adolescent beagles are reaching the age — around sixteen weeks — at which they are loaded into vans and sent to toxicity laboratories. The clock that ticks for the directors ticks for the dogs too.
The route is now visible. The choice is theirs.
Open Rescue.
Final option. The campaign has not chosen it. It has not been ruled out.
If MBR Acres refuses to talk, we keep every lawful option on the table.
That includes open rescue — the kind that two UK juries, at Cambridge and Peterborough Crown Courts, have already, twice, said was not dishonest.
We do not want to take that step. We have not chosen to. The choice now rests with MBR Acres.
Up to two thousand dogs are inside the facility while that choice is being made.
Precedent in this courtroom
Two juries — at Cambridge Crown Court and Peterborough Crown Court — have considered open rescues at MBR Acres and acquitted the defendants. The juries did not find the rescues dishonest under the Theft Act 1968. That is the record.
Precedent in this decade
Wisconsin, 18 April 2026 — 1,000+ activists at Ridglan Farms. Twenty-five arrests. Tear gas. Eleven days later, Ridglan signed a deal to release 1,500 beagles. An independently-owned US facility of comparable scale to MBR Acres — this is what it looked like when they finally agreed to negotiate.
Our preference is peace. We will continue to apply sustained, lawful, visible pressure for as long as MBR Acres continues to operate. We won’t go away.
You’ve read the roadmap.
Join Us.
Sign up to be available for any future open rescue. Or pick one of the other ways to help — foster a beagle, offer specialist support, read the letter, write to your MP. All real, all needed.
Join UsView the sealed letter