America's first advocacy organization dedicated to effectively fighting cruel experimentation on animals used in testing, research, and education.

Every year, millions of animals in need of help enter shelters throughout the United States. While some are lucky enough to return to their families or find new homes, many become victims of pound seizure - the sale of dogs and cats from shelters to research or education facilities, where they are used in invasive and often painful experimental procedures.

Such was the case with a shepherd-chow mix found in a small town in Michigan, wearing a purple collar and chain. Considered a stray, she was housed at a county animal control facility until being relinquished to R&R Research, a random source animal broker called a Class B dealer. She remained there for six months, likely spending most of her time alone, confined in a cage with limited human companionship.

Later, traveling over 1,000 miles with 13 other dogs, she was sold to the University of Florida, where veterinary students named her Cruella. There, over a period of seven months, she was sedated or anesthetized seven times, often for several hours, for use in medical training procedures, including endoscopy, abdominal surgery, and ultrasound exercises. During one surgical procedure, it was discovered that she already had been spayed, further indication that she was once someone's companion animal.

On July 23, 2008, 195 days after her arrival at the University of Florida and over a year after she was found in Michigan, Cruella was killed via lethal injection.

Please help prevent more innocent victims from falling prey to pound seizure, and other forms of animal cruelty, by supporting AAVS.