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.
Ways to help right now
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
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 — has agreed to close for good. Every remaining beagle is being released to rescue — more than 2,000 dogs in total — ending a multi-year US campaign in victory.
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.
To the Directors, MBR Acres Ltd
We are writing to offer MBR Acres a way out.
In 2026, an American beagle-breeding facility of comparable scale — Ridglan Farms in Wisconsin — agreed to close for good, releasing every remaining beagle to rescue — more than 2,000 dogs in total. It did so after a multi-year public campaign, peacefully, on a negotiated basis. We are writing to ask MBR Acres to do the same: meet, talk, and agree the peaceful end of this facility. That is the entirety of our ask.
The case against MBR Acres has been settled in the public mind for years. The 121,000 signatures presented to Parliament on 27 April 2026 did not start this conversation. They were the most recent entry in more than a decade of petitions, debates, letters and demonstrations, each one returning the same answer from the British people: this must end.
[The full letter continues. Read it below.]
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.
The Future?
Bigger than one facility. This is where the whole movement points.
MBR Acres is one front in a much larger fight. Closing it would be a landmark — but it is not the finish line.
Our aim is to bring the strands of this movement together — campaigners, fosterers, vets, lawyers, MPs and ordinary people — behind one shared goal: an end to beagle breeding and testing in the UK, and ultimately an end to animal testing in this country altogether.
No single group gets there alone. Camp Beagle at the gates, the supply-chain campaigners, the lawyers, the letter-writers, the person running a stall in their home town on a Saturday morning — every part matters, and it works best when it works together.
The science has moved. Public opinion has moved. The law can follow — if enough of us keep pushing, in the open, together.
Where this is heading
- 01The lawful closure of MBR Acres — an end to beagle breeding at Wyton.
- 02A UK-wide phase-out of dog testing with a real timeline, not a vague aspiration.
- 03Ultimately — an end to animal testing in the UK, replaced by the modern, non-animal science that already exists.
Proof it can be won
Wisconsin, 2026 — Ridglan Farms, a facility of comparable scale to MBR Acres, agreed to close for good and release every remaining beagle — more than 2,000 dogs. What looked impossible became inevitable once the movement refused to look away. That is the template.
Our preference is peace, and our method is the open, lawful, stubborn kind of pressure that has already emptied facilities elsewhere. We won’t go away — and we are stronger together.
The full chronology.
Every documented date in this story — the breeding, the law changes, the trials, the debates, and the campaign. All of it sourced on this site: see the facts, the law and the trials.
1970s–2014
From the 1970s
Fifty years of breeding at Wyton
Beagles are bred for laboratories at the Cambridgeshire site for half a century — through its Interfauna and Harlan eras, before Marshall BioResources takes over.
2012
Green Hill raided — Marshall’s Italian facility
Italian authorities raid Green Hill in Brescia, a Marshall-linked beagle breeder, after whistleblower reports and sustained public pressure. Around 2,500 beagles are seized; roughly 3,000 are rehomed through the legal process. 6,023 dogs had died there in the documented period.
2014
Green Hill executives convicted of animal cruelty
Italian courts convict three executives. The precedent: a beagle factory can be emptied, closed, and its operators held to account.
2014–2015
Marshall BioResources opens MBR Acres
After Green Hill’s closure, Marshall BioResources establishes beagle breeding at Wyton, Cambridgeshire — the facility now known as MBR Acres.
2020–2022
2020
Full capacity: ~2,000 puppies a year
The Wyton site reaches full operation — around two thousand beagles bred each year, most sold to laboratories at about sixteen weeks old.
June 2021
Camp Beagle begins
A continuous, lawful vigil starts at the gates of MBR Acres — it has not left since, and is described as the longest continuous animal-rights protest in the world.
2021
4,016 procedures on beagles in UK labs
House of Commons Library figures record 4,016 procedures on beagles in UK laboratories in a single year.
From 2021
The policing bill starts climbing
Cambridgeshire Police begin a spend on policing MBR Acres protest activity that passes £2.1 million by 2026.
2022
Petitions pass 100,000 signatures
Public petitions demanding closure cross the threshold that makes a parliamentary debate possible.
June 2022
First open rescue — 5 beagles
Five beagles are carried out of MBR Acres in daylight. The CPS initially drops all charges, then resurrects them years later.
20 December 2022
The largest open rescue — 18 beagles
Twelve supporters enter MBR Acres at 05:30 and remove eighteen puppies — the UK’s largest open rescue from an animal-testing facility.
23 December 2022
Love and Libby returned
Two of the puppies, intercepted by police, are handed back to MBR Acres — almost certainly killed as “contaminated” under facility protocol.
2023–2025
January 2023
First Westminster Hall debate
Parliament debates commercial breeding for laboratories after the petition threshold is met.
2023 onwards
65+ companies cut ties
Under sustained, lawful public pressure on the supply chain, more than sixty-five companies walk away from MBR Acres.
2024
Half a million signatures
Petitions across platforms collectively pass 500,000 signatures.
November 2024
ASRU audits MBR Acres
The regulator conducts its most recent documented audit of the facility — the audit trail MPs would later question in the House.
November 2025
Government publishes its phase-out strategy
“Replacing Animals in Science” promises to phase out animal testing “in all but exceptional circumstances” — with no statutory targets attached.
16 December 2025
Trial 1 — Cambridge Crown Court
Five defendants convicted of burglary over an open rescue; suspended sentences and a conditional discharge. No custody.
2026
12 January 2026
Trial 2 — first open-rescue acquittal in UK history
A Cambridge jury unanimously acquits four defendants. For the first time, a UK jury says an open rescue of laboratory animals was not dishonest.
14 January 2026
Lords approve the “national infrastructure” law
The House of Lords approves a Statutory Instrument adding “life sciences infrastructure” — animal testing facilities, including a commercial dog breeder — to the Public Order Act 2023’s Key National Infrastructure regime.
3 February 2026
Trial 3 — Peterborough Crown Court
Four defendants convicted of burglary after around five hours of deliberation.
11 February 2026
The KNI law takes effect
From this day, “interfering” with MBR Acres — a dog breeder now legally classed alongside power stations and hospitals — carries up to 12 months in prison and an unlimited fine.
24 February 2026
First arrests under the new law
Two campaigners are arrested at MBR Acres under the KNI offence — the first in the country.
2 March 2026
Judicial review filed
Lawyers for Animals and Camp Beagle campaigner Sole Iriart (represented by Bates Wells) file High Court proceedings arguing the KNI regulations are unlawful and breach ECHR Articles 10 and 11 — free expression and peaceful assembly.
9 March 2026
Trial 4 — second acquittal
A Peterborough jury acquits all five defendants, including Animal Rising director Rose Patterson, after three days of deliberation. Chris Packham gives a character reference.
26 March 2026
Trial 5 — and the bleeding licence concession
Three defendants convicted by 10–2 majority over the June 2022 rescue. In the process, the prosecution concedes on the record that MBR Acres holds a licence to bleed dogs under terminal anaesthesia.
18 April 2026
Ridglan Farms, Wisconsin — the movement escalates
Over 1,000 peaceful activists converge on Ridglan Farms, the closest US equivalent to MBR Acres. Deputies respond with tear gas, rubber bullets and flashbangs; 25 are arrested, including four attorneys.
24 April 2026
Ridglan agrees to surrender its licence
A special prosecutor’s settlement: Ridglan will surrender its breeding licence by 1 July. The same day, a federal class action is filed over the 18 April policing.
27 April 2026
Second Westminster Hall debate
Petition #736578 — 121,000+ signatures — is debated. Fourteen MPs from every major party call for an end to dog testing. The local MP tells the House the KNI regulations were introduced for no reason “other than to address the presence and actions of Camp Beagle”.
29 April 2026
Ridglan agrees to release 1,500 beagles
The release deal is signed — and the US House Appropriations Committee passes a cross-party amendment directing the USDA to review breeder licences where state licensure is lost.
1 May 2026
The Ridglan transfers begin
The first of more than 2,000 beagles leave Ridglan for rescue. The facility closes for good — proof that a breeder of MBR’s scale can be emptied by lawful, relentless public pressure.
May 2026
Lush Prize 2026
Camp Beagle is shortlisted for the Lush Prize — the largest prize fund in the non-animal-testing sector.
20 June 2026
The open letter is posted
Dated and sent by recorded delivery to MBR Acres, its parent companies, customers and the Cambridgeshire authorities — proposing a negotiated, peaceful end to breeding at Wyton, including an offer to buy the remaining dogs.
21 June 2026
The letter goes public
Hand-delivered in person and published in full on this site at midday. Thousands add their names.
19 July 2026
The response window closes
The letter gave MBR Acres four weeks for a substantive reply. The full record of what the letter asked — and what came back — lives on the open letter page.
You’ve read the roadmap.
Join Us.
There are real, lawful ways to help right now — write to your MP, add your name to the open letter, organise where you live, and support the wider movement. Here’s how.
How You Can HelpRead the open letter