Video footage taken by a security guard at MBR Acres shows the moment activists handed Beagle puppies over a barbed wire fence in what they consider a ‘rescue’. The prosecution say it was an ‘organised, planned’ burglary
Beagle ‘Burglary’ Trial Footage
Footage shows the moment an animal rights activist told a security guard “What you’re doing is killing animals” after the guard accused activists of “breaking the law” as they handed puppies over a fence.
Eighteen men and women from Animal Rising face charges of burglary and handling stolen goods after 20 dogs were taken from MBR Acres in Cambridgeshire in December 2022. The facility breeds Beagles for animal testing and is already a site of a permanent protest called ‘Camp Beagle’, jurors have been told.
A video recorded by a security guard, which was played to jurors at a trial in Cambridge Crown Court, appeared to show activists removing the dogs, while wearing pink t-shirts that said ‘Animal testing on trial’ and ‘What would you do if this was your dog?’
One activist could be seen kissing and cradling pups as she passed them up a ladder and over a fence under the cover of darkness with an alarm blaring in the background some time after 5:00am on December 20, 2022.
At one point in the footage, it appears a security guard attempts to move a ladder, leading one male activist to tell him: “You’re endangering her life.” The security guard responds: “What you’re doing is breaking the law.” The male activist says: “What you’re doing is killing animals.”
Videos from inside the B4 building, which were also played to jurors, showed dozens of dogs who appeared to be whimpering and standing up against the side of the metal cages, while activists climbed inside to pass them out for others to take away. In defence statements read to jurors, activists have described the dogs living in their own faeces and not seeing daylight.
When the guard taking the video confronts an activist inside the building, she tells him: “We’re not here to hurt you.” Outside the building, another guard appears to get out of a car and run after the activists, shouting: “Stay there.” When the activist holding a dog assures him “We’re not here to hurt you,” the guard says: “We’re not trying to hurt you.”
Two of the dogs were recovered by police at the scene on Sawtry Way in Wyton, Huntingdon, but 18 of them were never returned to MBR (Marshall Bio Resources). Jurors were told the dogs were distributed to sanctuaries around the UK, but those who removed them did not know where they ended up. Prosecutor Mitchell Cohen described it as an “organised, planned operation”.
The facility, which supplies dogs for medical testing and toxicology, is licensed and inspected by the Home Office and “no concerns have been raised”, jurors have been told.
But activist Eben Lazarus, 25, from Brighton, told the court taking the dogs was “the morally right thing to do” as he believed the conditions in the facility amounted to “abuse”, and “any decent person would agree this is a disgusting way to treat these puppies”.
Quoting Lazarus’s statement to police about ‘doing the morally right thing’, Mr Cohen told the court: “Laws and morals are not the same.” When Mr Cohen accused Lazarus of joining a “raid”, the construction worker claimed it was a “rescue”.
Ben Newman, 35, from Hackney , Nathan McGovern, 26, from Lewisham, Hannah Hunt, 26, from Brighton, and Lewis Elliott, 32, from Cumbria, are also on trial, with the other 13 defendants set to appear in successive linked trials that have been separated due to issues with courtroom capacity.
The defendants have admitted trespassing and removing property that was not theirs, but they dispute they were acting dishonestly. Jurors will decide whether the defendants acted reasonably, which is part of the legal test for burglary when a defendant genuinely believes their actions were honest.
The trial under Judge Philip Grey continues.
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