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Court-Confirmed Evidence

The Bleeding Licence

What MBR Acres is licensed to do to these dogs. These are not campaigner claims. These are prosecution-agreed facts, confirmed on the court record.

Scared dogs in cages - the conditions beagles face at breeding facilities
The Reality

The conditions these dogs face. Bred for one purpose: to be sold to laboratories.

The Procedure in Plain English

MBR Acres holds a Home Office project licence that permits the harvesting of biological products from live beagles and from beagles following what the licence terms “humane killing”. The licence also permits terminal blood sampling under general anaesthetic, from which the dogs are not permitted to recover.

Terminal Blood Sampling

The agreed facts do not name the method. Terminal blood collection from an anaesthetised animal is commonly done by cardiac puncture: drawing blood directly from the heart.

The dog is placed under general anaesthesia and its blood is taken while it is unconscious.

The dog does not recover from the anaesthesia. This is by design.

The licence language is: “terminal blood sampling under a general anaesthetic from which the animals are not permitted to recover”.

Campaigners describe this as “bleeding healthy dogs to death”. This is supported by the underlying procedure.

Inside a facility like MBR Acres - beagles held before procedures
Terminal Procedures

These dogs do not recover. That is by design.

Bio-Product Harvesting

The licence permits harvesting of bio-products from live dogs.

It also permits harvesting from dogs “following humane killing”.

These bio-products are used in downstream customer laboratories.

The specifics of which products are harvested are not fully public.

Primary and Secondary Availability

The licence has primary availability at B&K Universal at Grimston, near Hull (sister facility).

Secondary availability is at MBR Acres, Wyton.

Both facilities are operated by Marshall BioResources.

The Legal Status

This operates under a Home Office project licence.

MBR also holds an establishment licence under Section 2C of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.

Section 58 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 says nothing in that Act applies to anything done in the normal course of a regulated procedure under the 1986 Act, so these activities sit outside ordinary animal welfare law.

How We Know This

These facts were confirmed by the Crown prosecution during the open rescue trials at Cambridge and Peterborough Crown Courts, December 2025 to March 2026.

They were filed as “Agreed Facts” – meaning both prosecution and defence accepted them as true.

This is no longer a campaigner claim. It is on the court record.

Reported by the UK Human Rights Blog (10 March 2026) and by Animal Rising.

Commentary (Opinion)

When the prosecution has to concede in open court that the facility it is defending bleeds dogs under terminal anaesthesia, the question is no longer whether this is cruel. The question is why the law still permits it.

In short

The licence, in short

What is the MBR Acres "bleeding licence"?
"The bleeding licence" is the campaign name for a Home Office project licence on which MBR Acres, the beagle breeder at Wyton, Cambridgeshire, is named. In the 2025–2026 open rescue trials the prosecution accepted that it permits "terminal blood sampling" of dogs under a general anaesthetic from which they are not permitted to recover, and the harvesting of bio-products from live dogs or dogs following "humane killing".
Is MBR Acres licensed to kill dogs?
Yes, under licence. Facts agreed by the prosecution in the MBR Acres open rescue trials (Cambridge and Peterborough Crown Courts, December 2025 to March 2026) state that a Home Office project licence naming MBR Acres permits terminal blood sampling under general anaesthesia, from which dogs are not allowed to wake, and harvesting from dogs after "humane killing". The public record does not say how often these procedures are carried out.
How do we know what the MBR Acres licence permits?
The wording comes from facts agreed by the prosecution during the MBR Acres open rescue trials at Cambridge and Peterborough Crown Courts between December 2025 and March 2026. Agreed facts are accepted by both prosecution and defence. The UK Human Rights Blog reported the licence terms on 10 March 2026. Project licences themselves are not published by the Home Office.
What licences does MBR Acres hold?
MBR Acres holds an establishment licence under section 2C of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, which every UK breeder or supplier of dogs for research needs. It is also named on a Home Office project licence (section 2B), the "bleeding licence". Individuals who carry out procedures need personal licences under section 2A. See the establishment licence explained.
Why does animal welfare law not protect the dogs at MBR Acres?
Section 58 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 says nothing in that Act applies to anything done in the normal course of a regulated procedure under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. Procedures carried out under licence at or for MBR Acres are therefore governed by the 1986 Act, not ordinary animal cruelty law. Read our challenge to Section 58.
What is B&K Universal?
B&K Universal is Marshall BioResources’ other UK site, at Grimston near Hull in East Yorkshire; MBR Acres at Wyton, Cambridgeshire, is the first. According to the agreed facts in the 2025–2026 open rescue trials as reported by campaigners, the project licence that permits terminal blood sampling has its primary availability at B&K Universal and secondary availability at MBR Acres.

What You Can Do Next

The facts are on the record. Now they need to reach every MP, every constituent, every voter.

Write to Your MPHow You Can HelpThe Trials

This page describes licensed procedures using terminology from official Home Office project licences and prosecution-agreed court documents. It does not reproduce any licence in full.

Gallery

The Dogs Behind the Paperwork

The licence describes them in clinical terms. These are the animals it actually applies to.