Marshall BioResources and MBR Acres FAQ: The Other Side

Its dogs, cats, ferrets and minipigs are sold to contract laboratories and universities for toxicology tests and invasive studies.

MBR Acres in Wyton supplies beagles to contract research organisations including Charles River, Labcorp and Sequani. During the 2025 to 2026 Crown Court trials, the prosecution accepted as agreed fact that a Home Office project licence, held at B&K Universal near Hull and also available at MBR Acres, permits “harvesting of bio-products from live dogs, or from dogs following humane killing” and terminal blood sampling under general anaesthetic from which dogs are not permitted to recover. Those are regulated scientific procedures on animals, inside Marshall’s own group. Read the bleeding licence.

Federal inspection records from the first half of 2026 counted 33,203 animals across four of its New York sites. White Coat Waste Project has traced Marshall dogs and cats to NIH-funded experiments including induced heart failure, pacemaker implantation, circulatory arrest, spinal cord injury and skull drilling.

MBR Acres breeds around 2,000 beagles a year, most sold to laboratories at around 16 weeks old. Home Office statistics recorded 2,646 procedures on dogs in Great Britain in 2024 (4,016 on beagles in 2021, per the House of Commons Library). Marshall also owns sites in France, and operations in China and Japan. It may not hold the scalpel, but it supplies the animals, at industrial scale. See the whole group.

Whistleblower images published by Rise for Animals in 2026 show dogs in wire cages over faeces-strewn floors, ferrets and their young housed in filth, and a dead puppy in a soiled metal container. Earlier whistleblower footage released by PETA showed beagles in barren, faeces-covered wire cages. Former staff quoted by Wayne Hsiung allege “panic cleans” before inspections and puppies suffocating in food pans while seeking warmth.

The beagles at MBR Acres live their whole lives in indoor sheds. The public cannot see inside, because Home Office inspection detail is largely kept secret under Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act. When the regulator’s November 2024 audit reported no significant problems, the local MP, Ben Obese-Jecty, said correspondence from constituents contradicted it.

Care is measured by what the animals experience, not by a company’s statements. Whistleblowers in the US describe filth, untreated injuries, animals killed for cosmetic “defects” and distressing euthanasia (see questions 13, 14 and 28). Marshall’s Italian beagle breeder, Green Hill, was seized by Italian authorities in 2012 after 6,023 dogs died there between 2008 and 2012, and three senior staff were convicted of animal mistreatment (see question 22). In the UK, dogs from MBR Acres go to contract labs testing drugs and chemicals for human use, not pet care (see question 23).

USDA guidance caps hands-on dog examinations at 10 animals per inspection, however large the site. At Marshall’s biggest site, with over 14,000 dogs, that is roughly one dog in 1,500. Two inspectors led 46 of the 48 public inspections of Marshall between 2014 and 2026. AAALAC is a private, industry-funded accreditation, and ISO 9001 is a quality-management standard with nothing to do with animal welfare.

MBR Acres holds a Section 2C establishment licence under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, overseen by the Home Office’s Animals in Science Regulation Unit (ASRU). Section 24 of that Act restricts disclosure, so the public cannot see full inspection findings. Section 58 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 exempts animals used under ASPA from normal welfare protections, an exemption campaigners argue should never have stretched to breeding. ASRU’s own 2024 annual report recorded 146 non-compliance cases across 45 establishments, 43% of them relating to inadequate care. That is sector-wide, not MBR-specific, and it shows how common failings are.

Two recent clean reports do not erase the record. The USDA has cited Marshall for more than 20 Animal Welfare Act violations since 2007. Rise for Animals’ analysis of 48 public reports from 2014 to 2026 found 13 non-compliance items, 11 of them between 2021 and 2024. On 28 June 2023 the USDA issued Marshall Farms Group an Official Warning (ref NY230026) over cat housing. Inspections with extra inspectors recorded violations more than twice as often as those led by the usual pair.

The last documented ASRU audit of MBR Acres (November 2024) listed only three minor findings: rust, floor damage and a loose drain cover. That tells you as much about how the inspections work as about the site. Full reports are not published, and the local MP has said constituent evidence contradicts the audit.

The government’s November 2025 strategy, “Replacing animals in science”, sets the vision of eliminating animal use “in all but exceptional circumstances”, prioritises replacement for specially protected species including dogs, and backs it with a £30 million translational models hub and a new UK Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods. Campaigners’ criticism is that it has no statutory targets and no dog-specific end date.

The FDA announced in April 2025 a plan to phase out animal-testing requirements, starting with monoclonal antibodies, and the NIH has said it will no longer fund new proposals relying only on animal models.

Around nine in ten drugs that pass preclinical testing, including animal studies, go on to fail in human clinical trials, a figure widely cited by the NIH and the FDA. A meaningful share of those failures are for safety and toxicity, the very thing animal tests are supposed to catch. If animal studies reliably predicted human safety, far fewer drugs would fail for unexpected toxicity in people.

The 90% figure comes from mainstream drug-development data, not from activists. Marshall’s 71% figure appears to come from a 2000 industry-funded study (Olson et al.) that combined rodent and non-rodent results and looked only at drugs that had already caused toxicity in humans. It did not measure how often animal tests wrongly clear drugs as safe. A 2014 analysis of dog studies (Bailey, Thew and Balls, ATLA) concluded that a lack of toxicity in dogs gives little evidence a drug will be safe in people. That goes to the heart of why beagles are bred at MBR Acres at all.

On 20 June 2026 we sent an open letter to MBR Acres, its parent companies, its customers and the Cambridgeshire authorities proposing a negotiated, peaceful closure, including an offer to buy the remaining dogs. It gave four weeks for a substantive reply. The deadline passed at midday on 19 July 2026. They did not respond.

When Ridglan Farms in Wisconsin agreed to close in 2026, more than 2,000 beagles went to rescue organisations. Medical research did not stop.

Marshall is technically right, and that is the point. Since December 2022, US law no longer requires animal testing before human trials, so when dogs are still used it is a choice, not a legal obligation. In the UK, dogs are a specially protected species under ASPA and can lawfully be used only where no other species or method is suitable, and the government has now committed to eliminating animal use in all but exceptional circumstances. The justification for mass dog breeding is shrinking in both countries.

Beagles are used largely by convention and convenience: they are small, gentle and easy to handle. Research on dog toxicity studies (Bailey et al., 2014) found they are poor at confirming a drug is safe for people. The British public is clear: 86% find testing on dogs unacceptable (Ipsos MORI for the UK government, 2018). At the Westminster Hall debate on 27 April 2026, prompted by petition 736578 with more than 121,000 signatures, fourteen MPs from across the main parties called for an end to dog testing.

The prosecution accepted in Crown Court that a licence available at MBR Acres permits terminal blood sampling on dogs who are never allowed to wake up, and harvesting from dogs “following humane killing”. In December 2022 two puppies removed from MBR Acres, Love and Libby, were intercepted by police and returned to the site. MBR has never publicly said what happened to them.

Former staff quoted by Wayne Hsiung allege dogs were killed by abdominal injection of sodium pentobarbital, some thrashing and screaming for five to ten minutes before dying.

If rehoming really is the priority, Marshall can publish how many animals it kills and how many it rehomes each year, in both countries. It has not.

It is not an activist talking point. It comes from former staff. Whistleblower testimony published by Wayne Hsiung in August 2026 alleges hundreds of dogs a year are killed at Marshall’s US operation for minor cosmetic issues such as tail kinks or eye colour, because “non-standard” animals are harder to sell. Rise for Animals has published similar claims. Marshall could settle it in an afternoon by publishing its culling records, including for MBR Acres.

Marshall’s own answer confirms dogs are fitted with masks, and that this “screening” used to happen on its own premises. Whistleblower footage shows tethered, masked dogs frantic to escape their restraints. PETA previously released footage of beagles being trained to wear tight-fitting inhalation masks. Former staff quoted by Hsiung allege mask training linked to toxic gases and describe a dog dying after trying to escape restraints. Many of the UK contract laboratories that buy MBR Acres beagles carry out inhalation toxicology.

Marshall does not deny it. Its answer confirms these dogs are raised indoors from birth specifically to prepare them for laboratory life. The same applies at MBR Acres, where puppies leave the sheds at around 16 weeks for a lab. A beagle is a scent hound bred for the outdoors. Never feeling grass is not “enrichment”. It is the whole problem.

In the US the reports come from several separate people over many years: PETA’s whistleblower footage, images published by Rise for Animals in 2026, and testimony from multiple former staff published by Wayne Hsiung in August 2026. A former US federal prosecutor, Bonnie Klapper, has written a criminal referral letter on the allegations. In the UK, a clean regulator audit was publicly questioned by the local MP. An inspection that examines a handful of animals out of thousands cannot disprove what staff saw every day.

If you have worked at MBR Acres or B&K Universal, you can contact us in confidence. No account, no name, nothing stored that identifies you.

Marshall says it employs just over 200 people in North Rose. The USDA counted over 26,000 dogs, puppies and ferrets at one North Rose site in May 2026. Even if every employee worked full time on animal care, that is well over 100 animals per person, before shifts, holidays, cleaning and admin. MBR Acres does not publish its staffing for around 2,000 dogs.

Marshall does not say how many vets it employs or how many animals each is responsible for, in the US or the UK. US whistleblowers describe untreated injuries from unsafe housing, frequent deaths and neglect of basic veterinary needs (Rise for Animals, 2026). Former staff allege that when a vein could not be found for euthanasia, a dog’s neck was stood on during the injection (Hsiung, 2026). Legal minimums are not the same as good care.

200 staff for tens of thousands of animals is precisely the concern. The USDA’s May 2026 count at one site was 9,171 adult dogs, 5,394 puppies and 11,706 ferrets. Marshall has not published staff-to-animal ratios, vet numbers or shift cover for North Rose, MBR Acres or B&K Universal. If those figures are reassuring, it can release them.

Correct: they are separate companies. The comparison is about the business model. Envigo’s Cumberland, Virginia site was shut down in 2022 after federal action and around 4,000 beagles were removed; its parent, Inotiv, later pleaded guilty and paid a record Animal Welfare Act penalty. Ridglan Farms surrendered its breeding licence in April 2026 after a Wisconsin court found probable cause of felony animal cruelty. One UK footnote: the Wyton site now called MBR Acres bred beagles for decades under previous operators Interfauna and Harlan before Marshall took over, and Harlan is the company that later became Envigo. Mass breeding of dogs for laboratories has ended in scandal again and again.

Marshall’s own record includes Green Hill in Montichiari, Italy, a beagle breeder in the Marshall group. Italian authorities raided it in 2012 and seized around 2,500 beagles, with about 3,000 eventually rehomed. Records showed 6,023 dogs died there between 2008 and 2012, and evidence included dogs killed with Tanax without prior anaesthesia. Three senior staff were convicted of animal mistreatment in 2014 and sentenced to prison, with the convictions upheld on appeal in 2015. An 85-year history is not a defence. It is a longer record.

Many Marshall dogs are not used for pet medicine at all. In the US, White Coat Waste Project’s August 2026 investigation traced Marshall dogs to NIH-funded experiments including induced heart failure, obesity and diabetes, and circulatory arrest. In the UK, MBR Acres beagles go to contract research organisations for drug and chemical testing, largely for human products. Veterinary medicines can be, and increasingly are, developed through clinical studies in pets who are already ill, with their owners’ consent. Loving animals and opposing breeding them for laboratories is entirely consistent.

Congressman Nick Langworthy was refused a tour of the North Rose site by security in May 2026, and journalists documenting the site have reported being detained.

MBR Acres has taken campaigners to the High Court for injunctions restricting protest (from 2021, including MBR Acres v Curtin [2025] EWHC 331). Since 11 February 2026 the site has been treated as “key national infrastructure” under the Public Order Act 2023, so “interfering” with it carries up to 12 months in prison and an unlimited fine. The first arrests under that law came on 24 February 2026, and a High Court judicial review of the regulations was filed on 2 March 2026. Cambridgeshire Police have spent more than £2.1 million policing peaceful protest there since 2021. At the April 2026 debate the local MP said the legislation was introduced for no reason other than to address Camp Beagle. An open company would let people see inside instead. The protest laws, explained.

An open rescue is when people remove animals they believe are suffering, without hiding their identities, and accept the legal consequences so a court can hear why they acted. In the UK, beagles were removed from MBR Acres in June 2022 and December 2022, leading to five Crown Court trials in 2025 and 2026. Two juries acquitted nine defendants, including Animal Rising director Rose Patterson, in what was described as the first not-guilty verdict for an open rescue of laboratory animals in UK history. Others were convicted and received suspended sentences. It was during these trials that the prosecution confirmed the terminal bleeding licence (question 1). We do not encourage anyone to break the law, but British juries clearly did not all accept that this was simple theft.

Langworthy, a Republican New York congressman, visited the North Rose site in May 2026, was denied a tour, called the facility “a stain on New York”, and backs the PAW Act and the Protect Our Pets Act to end taxpayer-funded breeding of animals for laboratories.

Opposition is cross-party here too. At the 27 April 2026 Westminster Hall debate, fourteen MPs called for an end to dog testing, including Labour’s Lee Pitcher (“the time has come to end animal testing”), the Green Party’s Adrian Ramsay and the Liberal Democrats’ Caroline Voaden. Attacking elected representatives rather than answering them is telling.

No single closure ends animal testing, and nobody claims it does. But supply drives use, and removing the biggest sources of laboratory dogs speeds up the switch to better science. Marshall is already an international company, with UK sites (MBR Acres and B&K Universal), sites in France, and operations in China and Japan, so its “overseas” warning rings hollow. The same argument was made about Ridglan, which closed in 2026 without research collapsing. More than 65 companies have already cut ties with MBR Acres, and the UK government has committed to eliminating animal use in all but exceptional circumstances.

Hsiung’s evidence, published on 31 August 2026, is not one employee’s word. It includes video testimony from multiple former staff, photographs, inspection records and internal USDA APHIS documents, and a criminal referral letter from former federal prosecutor Bonnie Klapper. Allegations include dogs thrown into cage walls, painful euthanasia by abdominal injection, a dog’s neck stood on during an injection, puppies suffocating in food pans, and dogs killed over tail kinks or eye colour.

For transparency: Hsiung faces separate felony charges in Wisconsin connected to Ridglan Farms. That does not change what the footage shows. As covered in question 5, an inspection that hands-on examines ten dogs cannot disprove what staff witnessed daily. Watch the evidence and decide for yourself.