Lenawee Humane Society gets 10 beagles out of 4,000 in Virginia breeding center

ADRIAN — After a breeding facility in Virginia was shut down for safety violations, shelters around the country are trying to find forever homes for 4,000 beagles.

The Lenawee Humane Society picked up 10 of the animals this week from the Midland Humane Society, which had transported a total of 50 of them from Virginia. The 7-month-old puppies are fully grown at approximately 13 inches and are all female.

"We're currently working on helping them overcome some of the issues they've been through, such as becoming healthy, parasite-free and then finding them adoptive homes for them," said Sasha Wilkerson, communications manager for the Lenawee Humane Society. "Honestly, these dogs love to be together. So we're housing two in a kennel, which takes up only five of our smaller kennels which are normally not in use because we always have more big dogs than small dogs here in Lenawee County."

Before the beagles get adopted, they will all be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, heartworm tested, microchipped and given flea preventive.

"So far nobody has had any major medical issues, just normal parasites," Wilkerson said. "Some of them seem to be a little underweight but not emaciated or anything like that. Right now, the main issue is helping them learn how to be a dog. One of the things we love is that they absolutely love other dogs, but they've always lived in a cage. So they don't know how to walk on a leash. They're not house trained. They've never been in a house. Things like a ceiling fan or a TV freak them out because they've never been around them."

The company that was breeding the animals did so to use them in medical research to study the effects of various medications.

"They are small, which means they can house more dogs together," Wilkerson said. "But they're also docile in nature, which means they're really easy to work with. So that's why they pick beagles for research, and that's why there were 4,000 dogs of that specific breed."

Wilkerson said the shelter wants to get the dogs into foster homes as soon as possible.

"We are definitely looking for their forever homes," she said. "We would love for those people to be able to foster them while we get them spayed and neutered and all checked out medically. We're looking for those super patient people who are willing to start fostering these dogs, work with them and give them the attention that they need. If they could take them home as early as this weekend or next week, that would be amazing."

Those who cannot take an animal home can visit the Lenawee Humane Society's website at lenhumanesoc.org to donate money or supplies needed as requested on the site.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Humane Society trying to find forever homes for 10 female beagles