About MBR Acres

What Is MBR Acres?

MBR Acres is a commercial beagle breeding facility located at Wyton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE28 2DT. It is owned and operated by Marshall BioResources, a US-headquartered company that breeds animals for use in laboratory experiments. MBR Acres is licensed by the Home Office under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) to breed up to 2,000 beagle puppies per year.

Ownership and Corporate Structure

Marshall BioResources is headquartered in the United States. It describes itself as the world’s largest supplier of purpose-bred research animals. In the UK, its operations include MBR Acres in Cambridgeshire and B&K Universal in Grimston, East Yorkshire — together the only two commercial beagle breeding sites for UK laboratories.

The company has a documented history in Italy, where three of its executives were convicted of animal cruelty following the deaths of 6,023 dogs at its Green Hill facility between 2008 and 2012. Those convictions were upheld by the Italian Supreme Court in October 2017. See the Italy Story page for full details.

Conditions Inside MBR Acres

The dogs at MBR Acres are kept in windowless industrial sheds. They have no access to the outdoors. The breeding females spend their entire lives inside the facility. Puppies are born into this environment and remain there until they are approximately sixteen weeks old, at which point they are sold to laboratories.

Whistleblower testimony and covert footage submitted to authorities describe:

• Dogs left unattended for up to 20 to 23 hours at weekends.
• Concrete flooring with minimal enrichment.
• No natural light in the sheds where dogs are housed.
• Dogs showing signs of distress consistent with the conditions described.

MBR Acres holds a “terminal bleeding” licence, meaning dogs can be bled until death as a blood product procedure — in addition to being sold for laboratory experiments.

Who Buys the Dogs?

The primary customer for MBR Acres beagles is Labcorp UK, based in Huntingdon (formerly known as Huntingdon Life Sciences). MBR Acres also supplies Charles River Laboratories and Sequani. Dogs are sold to these facilities at approximately sixteen weeks old and are used in toxicology and pharmaceutical testing. At the end of experiments, the dogs are killed. None are rehomed.

How Dogs Are Transported

The physical transport of beagle puppies from MBR Acres to client laboratories is carried out by Impex Services International Ltd, a company registered in Islip, Northamptonshire, and directed by Russell Philip Morgan. Impex is licensed by the Home Office to transport laboratory animals under ASPA. Its vehicles are typically unmarked. See the Impex Services International page for more detail.

Legal Status and Oversight

MBR Acres operates under a licence issued by the Home Office. The same government department that grants and monitors the licence is responsible for scrutinising the facility. Home Office inspectors visit, but their findings are protected from disclosure by Section 24 of ASPA, which makes it a criminal offence to publish information obtained during inspections.

Dogs at MBR Acres are not protected by the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Section 58(1) of ASPA specifically exempts animals held under that Act from the protections that would otherwise apply. This means the standard legal safeguards that cover any domestic dog in the UK do not apply to the beagles at MBR Acres.

Connected Companies

• B&K Universal Group Ltd (Grimston, East Yorkshire) — Marshall BioResources’ other UK facility, which also breeds animals for laboratory testing.
• Impex Services International Ltd (Islip, Northamptonshire) — licensed to transport animals from MBR Acres to laboratories.