Ontario Lab Faces Probe Over Alleged Dog Cruelty, Failed Oversight

TORONTO, ON – January 27, 2026 – Animal welfare advocates are demanding urgent government action following the release of disturbing undercover footage allegedly showing systemic cruelty to beagles inside one of Canada’s largest contract research facilities.

Animal Alliance of Canada is calling on the Ontario government and the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) to launch a full investigation into Nucro-Technics, a toxicology and research laboratory in Scarborough. The call to action follows a damning report by the Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) and shocking video evidence captured by an investigator from Last Chance for Animals (LCA), which appears to document profound animal suffering and serious breaches of protocol.

“This footage confirms what we have known for decades,” said Kira Berkeley, Advocacy Manager for Animal Alliance of Canada, in a press release. “When it comes to dogs used in research, the system the industry calls ‘highly regulated’ repeatedly fails to prevent serious suffering. Oversight bodies had multiple opportunities to intervene here — and did not.”

A Look Inside the Lab

The allegations stem from a six-month undercover investigation in 2023. The footage, which has sent shockwaves through the animal welfare community, reportedly shows beagles used in pharmaceutical testing collapsing, crying out, vomiting, and struggling during invasive procedures. In one documented instance, a gavage tube used for force-feeding was allegedly inserted into a dog’s lungs by mistake. In another, a beagle was seen slumping onto a table after a euthanasia injection, a clear violation of CCAC guidelines which require careful handling.

Nucro-Technics, which bills itself as Canada's largest privately-owned contract research organization, provides testing services for the pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industries. Despite holding accreditations from numerous bodies, including Health Canada, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the CCAC, the facility now finds itself at the center of a controversy that questions the effectiveness of the very systems meant to ensure animal welfare.

Published studies involving the facility confirm the use of dogs in experiments that often end in death. A 2019 study on prostate cancer treatments involved the euthanasia of 30 beagles, while a 2020 study saw 15 beagles “humanely sacrificed” for tissue analysis. The LCA investigator documented dogs being killed, necropsied, and then discarded in garbage cans.

A System of Broken Oversight

The alleged abuses raise serious questions about how such conditions could persist within a system of supposedly robust oversight. Animal research in Ontario is governed by three main bodies: the facility’s own internal Animal Care Committee, the provincial Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMAFRA) which enforces the Animals for Research Act, and the national Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC).

The CCAC, a national peer-review agency, sets the standards for animal ethics and care in science. Institutions must maintain a CCAC ‘Certificate of Good Animal Practice’ to receive federal research funding. The CCAC has confirmed it is investigating Nucro-Technics in light of the allegations. However, critics point out that the agency’s power is limited; it cannot levy fines or legal penalties, and its inspection reports are not typically made public, shrouding the process in secrecy.

Further compounding concerns, experts have criticized the CCAC’s standards as being severely outdated. One behavioural biologist and professor at the University of Guelph specializing in animal welfare noted that the council’s guidelines for the use of dogs in research have not been updated since 1984, calling the “40-plus year lag” disgraceful and a reflection of underfunding.

The Ethical Supply Chain

The investigation also shed light on the source of the animals. The IJB report revealed that since 2013, Nucro-Technics has purchased its beagles from Ridglan Farms, a large-scale commercial dog breeder in Wisconsin. Ridglan Farms was, until recently, the second-largest U.S. breeder of dogs for research facilities.

In December 2025, Ridglan Farms agreed to surrender its license and cease operations to avoid criminal animal cruelty charges in Wisconsin. The breeder faced extensive allegations of animal abuse, including claims that unlicensed staff performed hundreds of painful surgeries on beagles without anesthesia. The fact that a major Canadian lab was sourcing animals for over a decade from a supplier with such a deeply troubled history has prompted calls for a full investigation into the ethical responsibilities of research institutions and their supply chains.

Animal Alliance is urging the Ontario government to not only investigate Nucro-Technics’ relationship with Ridglan Farms but also to determine how many other research facilities in the province were sourcing animals from the now-defunct breeder.

Fueling the Push for Reform

The scandal erupts as the Ontario government prepares to resume debate this spring on Bill 75, legislation intended to amend the Animals for Research Act and curb the use of dogs and cats in experiments. The bill was initially spurred by another IJB report in 2025 that exposed cardiac experiments on dogs at a London, Ontario hospital.

Advocates argue the Nucro-Technics case is a stark reminder of why legislative change is desperately needed. However, they warn that Bill 75, as currently written, contains loopholes and does not go far enough. “The most effective way to prevent this cruelty is to end the use of dogs and cats in research experiments altogether,” said Liz White, Co-Founder and Honourary Director of Animal Alliance of Canada.

The organization is pushing for a future where Ontario shifts its focus and investment toward non-animal and human-based research methods, such as organ-on-a-chip technologies and AI-driven drug discovery, which are often considered more predictive and ethical. “With meaningful investment, Ontario could be a global leader in ethical, modern research,” White stated. “What’s happening to these dogs shows why that transition is urgently needed.”