Thousands of beagles rescued from research and breeding facility in Virginia

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Animal rescue organizations across the country are stepping up, working to re-home thousands of beagles recently rescued from a Virginia research and breeding facility.

  We spent the past month meeting some of these precious pups and the people involved in the massive rescue operation.

  Here now is our report on who let the dogs out and where they are now.

  This is the moment California resident Cristo (ph) Fan knew she was adopting a puppy, a decision her sister, Christine, also made. Their pups, Maya (ph) and Milley (ph), are two of some 4,000 beagles rescued from a Cumberland, Virginia, facility, which bred and sold animals for research.

• Christine Fan, Beagle Owner:

  Even though they have been through so much, they're so good natured and so trusting of humans.

• Amna Nawaz:

  In July, the Department of Justice secured the release of the beagles after filing a lawsuit against Envigo RMS, alleging that the breeding facility failed to provide — quote — "minimum standards" for handling, housing, feeding, watering, sanitation, and adequate veterinary care."

  But relocating 4,000 beagles is no easy task, a massive undertaking spearheaded by the Humane Society of the United States. More than 120 shelters and rescues in 29 states sent volunteers to the facility to pick up the beagles, transport them and provide medical care.

  Miguel Abi-hassan, Humane Society of the United States: It's not as simple as just mobilizing 4,000 dogs.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Miguel Abi-hassan, chief animal rescue officer for the Humane Society of the United States, or HSUS.

• Miguel Abi-hassan:

  Working in this environment can be a little bit tough. Ultimately, we're responding to some of the most heinous cruelty situations. But the joy can be found in the work that the animal rescue team does, what we bring to these animals.

• Amna Nawaz:

  I visited one organization that stepped up to assist, Lucky Dog Animal Rescue in Arlington, Virginia.

  Now, they don't have a shelter or a kennel, so they rely on a network of volunteers, dozens of people who step to temporarily housed the animals, like Ollie (ph) here, in their homes until a permanent home can be found. And this one office helped to rehouse and rescue 30 beagles. HSUS reached out and basically said, we don't have any information these dogs, other than they're beagles and they're coming from the research facility.

  Ali Porter manages the transportation and foster program at Lucky dog.

• Ali Porter, Lucky Dog Animal Rescue:

  The drivers actually went down, picked up the animals. And that was the first time we got anything. So the volunteers were sending us pictures and copies of their medical records while they were driving back.

  And we just started kind of the list that we had of the fosters that said they could take them. We reached out to them and said, hey, this is what we know about them now.

• Amna Nawaz:

  With adoptions now under way across the country, the hard work is paying off.

  Angela Speed has worked with Wisconsin's Humane Society for 16 years.

• Angela Speed, Wisconsin Humane Society:

  I cannot remember any time when we have had this volume of calls and e-mails and messages coming into our shelter from people from more than 25 states.

• Person:

  Let's go home, hon.

• Amna Nawaz:

  The beagles and their story have pulled at the heartstrings of Americans from coast to coast; 7-year-old Mia got a fairy tale ending, recently adopted by the duke and duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, after Mia and eight of her puppies were rescued.

• Trip Barrs, Treasure Island, Florida, Fire Chief:

  This is our newest member of the fire department, Captain.

• Amna Nawaz:

  And in Treasure Island, Florida, the local fire department adopted this beagle named Captain.

• Trip Barrs:

  And it's great to have him around too. This guy had a traumatic beginning to his life. Our firefighters see a lot of traumatic stuff in the course of their day, sometimes, and it's nice for them to be able to come back to the station and have some unconditional love with the captain.

• Lt. Steven Rowland, Treasure Island, Florida, Fire Rescue:

  Last week, we took them out in the fire truck, and he got to ride around in the city with that. And he actually loved being up there looking around. He's just so entertained by seeing, like, the world.

• Amna Nawaz:

  In Long Beach, New York, Leigh and her husband Jesse are proud parents to Mondu (ph), whom they adopted in August.

• Leigh Martz, Beagle Owner:

  Poppy (ph), who is Mondu's mom, gave birth to the litter the day after she was rescued from the lab.

• Amna Nawaz:

  The couple drove four hours round-trip to bring their new friend home, a home she's still getting used to.

• Jesse Martz, Beagle Owner:

  She really likes going down to the beach. And when she's on the beach, she just lays down and, like, doesn't walk.

• Leigh Martz:

  She was described as the spunky one in the litter who kind of always would explore first, jump out of a crated area, and then kind of then everyone else would follow. So, we knew we were in for a fun time.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Like so many others who've opened their doors to give these beagles a safe place to call home.

  Clearly, one of my toughest assignments so far, and I was this close to adding another rescue dog to our home. Not this time.