INSIDE EDITION visited the nine beagles that were liberated six months ago, after spending their whole lives in cages as laboratory test animals, to see how they're doing today.
It's a moment that brings new meaning to the word "bittersweet." Nine fully-grown beagles that never knew life outside of a cage have finally been liberated.
When the door to one dog's cage was opened, he didn't jump out. He sniffed the grass and tentatively patted it with his paw before taking that first small step to freedom.
One by one the dogs were coaxed out of their cages, their steps wobbly and tentative.
The beagles had the bad luck to grow up in a laboratory in Spain, where they were used as test animals for a variety of medical products.
"Years and years and years of just sitting there, and the only contact they know is to be tortured," said Shannon Keith of the Beagle Freedom Project.
Happily for them, a group called Animal Rescue Media Education brought them to Los Angeles to give them a chance for a better life. Within minutes, their newfound freedom seemed to give them strength.
It has been six months since the beagles arrived in LA, and they're doing great.
"Day by day, these beagles are getting so much better," Keith said.
Three have been adopted, and two more are about to be adopted, one by former Baywatch star Alexandra Paul, who showed up when INSIDE EDITION was there.
Paul named her new dog Javier. She showed us a tattoo inside the dog's ear and said, "Every animal just has a number, they don't have a name in a lab, so, now Javier has a name."
