Celebrities such as Amanda Holden, Dame Joanna Lumley and Jonathan Ross have backed a call for a beagle testing site to be shut down. 

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has been sent a letter signed by them as well as cross-party MPs and peers and animal organisations such as Animal Rising and Peta.

Demands are being made for an immediate closure of MBR Acres, in Wyton in Cambridgeshire – the only UK site breeding dogs for the animal testing industry.

There are also calls for the safe rehoming of all beagles there, backed by the Animal Rising group that has previously courted controversy with moves including ‘rescue missions’ and defacing a portrait of the King.

This comes after years of campaigning against the site, with more than 170,000 people signing a petition to close it down.  

MBR is permitted to breed animals for animal testing and research, prompting opponents to have set up a protest outside dubbed ‘Camp Beagle’, since 2021.

Activists say the site’s operator MBR Acres is licensed to bleed healthy dogs to death, by directly inserting needles into their heart and surrounding blood vessels, while also able to harvest their organs

The new campaign call urges the Government to ‘let Britain lead the world into a future without animal testing’ by closing the Wyton site.

Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden (pictured in London on December 10 2025) has signed a letter calling for the closure of MBR Acres’ research facility in Wyton, Cambridgeshire

Another co-signatory is actress Dame Joanna Lumley (seen in Westminster in May 2022)

Animal rights activists have filmed inside the MBR Acres beagle testing facility in Wyton

Others adding their name to the letter include the BBC’s Springwatch presenter Chris Packham, Made In Chelsea’s Lucy Watson and ex-Blue Peter host Gail Porter.

Politicians in support include Labour’s Rachael Maskell and Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the Liberal Democrats’ Lord McNally and the Greens’ former leader Siân Berry.  

MBR Acres, which is owned by Marshall BioResources, reportedly breeds about 2,000 beagles a year for universities and private laboratories around the world for experimental research.

Animal Rising accuses MBR Acres of being responsible for breeding around 2,000 beagles each year to be sold for animal testing at 16 weeks old.

Previous celebrity opposition to the site included singer Will Young handcuffing himself to a gate there in a one-man protest in November 2021. 

And in July 2021, actor Ricky Gervais called for an ‘immediate ban’ on the testing site, telling the Times: ‘These experiments are now proven to entirely fail the search for human treatments and cures.

‘We need an immediate ban on this shocking animal cruelty, which is clearly holding back medical progress.’ 

The new letter was sent on Monday evening to the Home Office.

Animal Rising activists have carried out previous ‘rescues’ of beagles from the facility

Police and protesters clash at the MBR Acres-adjacent Camp Beagle in 2021

Animal Rising director Rose Patterson said: ‘Dozens of public figures have added their voices to the open letter, and over 170,000 people have signed the petition to shut down MBR Acres.

‘The British public is united on this and expects change at the highest level.

‘We call ourselves a nation of animal lovers, but MBR Acres holds a licence to bleed healthy dogs to death by inserting needles directly into their hearts. Those two things cannot coexist.

‘The Government has a mandate to act and shutting down MBR Acres is the easiest first step they could take.’

The letter is the latest in a series of escalating campaigns calling on the Government to take genuine steps towards phasing out animal testing in the UK, as per their manifesto pledge in the lead-up to the 2024 general election. 

MPs from Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP, the Green Party and Your Party have all signed to show their support for the campaign.

Carla Denyer, Bristol Central’s Green Party MP, highlighted how the Government’s Animal Welfare Strategy published on December 22 last year recommitted to ‘phase out animal testing’.

Then, on February 11, the categorised ‘Key National Infrastructure’ in the Public Order act was amended include animal testing sites.

Animal Rising director Rose Patterson said: ”The Government has a mandate to act and shutting down MBR Acres is the easiest first step they could take’

Ms Denyer said: ‘The charitable interpretation is that the government’s left hand doesn’t know what its right hand is doing, or more concerningly, that they are trying to tell the people what they want to hear while quietly acting in the interest of big businesses instead.

‘I hope the government sees that the route to regaining public support involves reversing this decision and closing down MBR Acres for good.’

The fourth of five trials relating to two separate Animal Rising invasions and attempted rescues of beagle puppies from MBR Acres is ongoing.

The previous three trials have returned one acquittal and two convictions, with sentences ranging from 18-month suspended sentences to conditional discharges.

Brian Leishman, Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, said: ‘Experiments on animals are not only cruel and morally wrong.

‘They have also become completely needless and obsolete as we have seen developments in computer based modelling and other lab-based testing models.

‘Now that we are in government, Labour must make good on its promise to phase out animal testing for good, rather than labelling animal testing facilities as key national infrastructure.

‘Whether it is beagles bred for research and subjected to needless toxicology experiments or rodents used to test new drugs, no animal should suffer needlessly.’

Dog lover Will Young chained himself to fencing outside the research centre in November 2021

Love Island star Faye Winter gave a speech at a protest against animal testing, outside Parliament in February 2024

A Government spokesperson said: ‘The UK has some of the world’s toughest rules to ensure animal testing happens only when it is genuinely needed and always under strict, licensed conditions.

‘Furthermore, our Alternatives Strategy, backed by £75million in funding and developed in collaboration with animal welfare organisations, will phase out animal testing and use safe, proven alternatives instead.’

The ‘Alternatives Strategy’ describes how ‘new advances in technology – particularly and genomics, but also organoid and 3D cell systems’ could help phase out using animals for scientific research.

It states: ‘However, as this strategy is implemented, we recognise that some animal research will continue, due to the maturity of alternatives available.

‘In the meantime, we will continue to support and enable well justified and designed animal research where alternatives do not exist.’

MBR Acres’ parent firm Marshall BioResources has been contacted for comment. 

Following the previous repeated protests, Understanding Animal Research issued a statement on MBR Acres’ behalf in 2024.

It stated: ‘MBR Acres is fully licensed as a specialist laboratory animal breeder that raises dogs to be content in a lab environment.

‘Our lawful business is run in full compliance with Home Office regulations and with our normal high welfare standards.

‘Dog owners who protest against us should remember that all vaccines, worming tablets, antibiotics and other veterinary treatments that they have given to their pets have been tested on dogs like the ones bred here.

‘Likewise, dogs cannot be used if alternative methods exist, so the price of opposing their use is that new treatment for diseases like cancer and heart disease cannot be developed.

‘While UK research requires us to contribute to the leading development of new medicines to save human and animal lives, we will stay proud to breed animals in the UK.

‘We have allowed filming inside our dog units and have worked with Understanding Animal Research to collate the extensive information on dog experiments that is publicly available on pages available at www.beagle.wiki.’ 

Supporters of Animal Rising previously rescued five beagles from the facility in June 2022 but the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the burglary charges after two weeks.

In 2024, activists from the group who were planning to steal more than 100 animals from RSPCA Assured farms U-turned on their plans following an investigation.

Campaigners were planning to ‘mobilise and train’ more than 200 people to take part in the ‘huge open rescue’ at an undisclosed location later that year.

That came not long after 110 people took part in a Zoom meeting where ringleaders of the extremist group revealed they were organising secret in-person trainings across the country to teach people how to break onto farms and take animals.

But Animal Rising cancelled plans after the RSPCA warned ‘divisive stunts’ could frighten and ‘distress’ animals and potentially ‘spread disease to animals on farms’.

Also that summer, two Animal Rising activists defaced the King’s first official portrait with Wallace and Gromit inspired posters to raise awareness about their investigation into animal welfare on RSPCA assured farms.

In June 2024, the duo covered the monarch’s face with an image of the animated character Wallace and stuck a speech bubble to the painting with a message about ‘cruelty’ on RSPCA farms.

The statement added at the Philip Mould gallery in London read: ‘No Cheese, Gromit. Look At All This Cruelty On RSPCA Farms!’

The painting – which was partly inspired by the King’s history of environmental work – was not thought to be damaged, having been kept behind Perspex.