Video footage of animals released from labs and experiencing freedom for the first time provides compelling evidence of their deprivation due to life in captivity.
In this video by the Beagle Freedom Project, 9 beagles experience freedom and leave behind their laboratory cages forever for the first time. Their joy and awe at seeing the sky and feeling grass beneath their feet is clearly palpable.
This delightful video captures the release of 50 rats from a lab and follows their first movements, both inquisitive and joyful, as they quickly revert to their natural behaviors. The film is a project of Ratlife.org, which set out to answer the question of whether 200 generations in captivity affected these rats’ ability to live and behave as those born naturally in the wild. What is surprising is not just their ability to adapt to freedom, but how quickly that happens.
Watch how a group of chimpanzees taste their first, halting moments of freedom after 30 years of life in a research lab. After a few moments of awe tinged with fear, they embrace freedom and each other in joy. An Austrian sanctuary, Gut Aiderbichl, filmed the experience.