This month I was asked to crochet Betty, and while doing so I found out that she has quite an emotional back story. It is a story I want to share.
When you look at those beautiful eyes, it’s hard to believe that anyone could harm such a beautiful, soulful animal. However, Betty spent the first five years of her life as a beagle in a laboratory.
I asked her owner, Amelia to share Betty’s story:
‘She was used for drug testing in a laboratory in Ireland, but that’s all the details we have about it. Once labs have finished with an animal, more often than not, they will destroy them, but if a charity is willing and able to take them on, then they may release them. It’s not a legal requirement in Europe, so they can choose not to.
The Irish RSPCA took in around 175-200 of these little beagles of various ages. They then get filtered around to other charities that can help. That’s how Betty ended up in Manchester Dogs’ Trust.
I wasn’t even looking for a dog really, I always looked on sites just to have a ‘doggo‘ stalk but as soon as I saw Betty, I knew I needed her, to be honest.
They had about 11 at Manchester. So off I went on my errands and ‘accidentally’ stumbled into the Dogs’ Trust. I’m animal obsessed and knew exactly where she had come from, from the minimal info and the photos. So the woman spoke with me for about 3 hours, about every struggle we would have with introducing her to the normal world and I reserved her. I didn’t tell my partner or anybody.
He didn’t have a choice, so we had to go and see her loads for a few weeks before she came to live with us.
She was 5 when we got her and she had been bred for the purpose of being an experimental Beagle and that was all she had ever known.
Getting her into a life as a normal dog was a really long, hard process, because she knew nothing at all and obviously didn’t trust the world.
We had to toilet train her at 5 years old 🤦🏻♀️ and work on literally everything with her in tiny baby steps. She was scared of men, loud noises, the dark, certain food bowls, her face being touched; you name it she was scared of it!
Happy Gilmore school high
She was my project, I managed to get her to go on walks by literally standing in the front garden, waiting for a confident dog to go past, picking her up and running over the road for her to sniff. Once she got that scent she would follow them with no issues. She worked out how to walk over the door step eventually and then how to walk upstairs.
It was just all very slow and steady with loads of set backs along the way, but she’s amazing! It’s been nearly 4 years now and she’s just beautiful. It’s honestly the hardest thing I have ever done but we were a team. I was a newly qualified nurse and we were each other’s support animal. I’d have been in a bad place without her.
She’s adored by everyone, loves walks, LOVES people and men now. She’s going a bit deaf so load noises aren’t a massive issue. She’s got a heart murmur now and arthritis, so she’s a pickle but my one big massive hope is to get her to at least 10 years old. That way she’s had over half her life free ♥️’
Thank you so much, Amelia, for sharing this story. I hope someday we will live in a world where humans don’t put these gentle creatures through what Betty had to endure - it’s a sad fact that the reason Beagles are chosen by laboratories is because of their gentle temperaments.
Betty has such beautiful eyes. I hope that I have managed to show that in my crochet version…
If you would like to follow Betty on Instagram here is the link to her account:
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