According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) more than 60,000 dogs are tested on in the United States each year. 95% of those dogs are beagles. Beagles, being docile in nature and extremely forgiving, are considered the ideal candidate for toxicology studies. These dogs are force fed, injected, or sprayed to test things such as pharmaceuticals and household cleaning products. In the US, it is estimated that over $12 billion of taxpayers money help funds these tests annually and only a small 8% of tests are ever successful enough to make it to market. About 3% of these dogs survive, and only a mere fraction are ever released to the public for adoption if they aren’t euthanised after testing. Printmaker Laura Garrahan’s dog, Jasper, was one of the lucky ones who survived.
Thus, Laura was inspired to create a series of linocut prints that help bring awareness to animal testing; “…many people are unaware that these practices still exist today and are typically shocked when told Jasper was rescued from a laboratory”. The series title, 8384870, is the way in which Jasper was identified in his laboratory, not by name but a number tattooed inside his right ear.
The first piece that Laura created for the series, Jasper’s Dream, represents the dreams that she hopes he will get to experience on a regular basis. She comments; “He currently suffers from nightmares brought on by PTSD from being experimented on for the first 2.5years of his life. It’s a daily occurrence that usually begins with growling or whimpers that eventually end with him abruptly waking up looking around terrified.” Laura was inspired to create the piece after witnessing Jasper, for the first time, have a happy dream. She describes; “That particular day he was asleep in his bed by the window, laying in the sunlight when all of a sudden I heard thumping. I looked over and couldn’t believe my eyes. He was asleep and wagging his tail with excitement. I couldn’t help but wonder what he could possibly be dreaming about considering the world was very new to him. I could imagine him get wonderment from something simple like a butterfly or bird in the garden or even just pets from a loving touch.”
The second piece represents Jasper’s curiosity and strong sense of smell. Laura states; “For anyone who has owned a beagle or hound dog knows their little nose can smell everything. For Jasper, not only can he smell just about anything he is also so curious about the world around him. Always jumping up to see what you’re doing, eating, cooking. He’ll just watch you and wag his little tail in amazement and needing to be in the middle of it all.”
This is just the start of the series, and Laura’s plan is to create many more. For every purchase of the prints 10% of proceeds are donated to Beagle Freedom Project, the rescue that saved Jasper.
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