General Assembly Passes Dog-Breeder-for-Testing Oversight Bills; Sen. Stanley Celebrates with Puns

Both the House of Delegates and the Senate unanimously passed several of State Senator Bill Stanley’s (R-Franklin) bills on Monday and Tuesday to regulate dog breeders, the result of bipartisan work spurred by dramatic reports at a Virginia beagle-breeder-for-medical-testing Envigo. The bills are now headed to Governor Glenn Youngkin’s desk. An outright ban on the practice sponsored by State Senator Jennifer Boysko (D-Fairfax) is set to die in the House Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee after being passed by the Senate. Oversight bills from Bosyko and State Senator David Marsden (D-Fairfax) are also doomed in the same committee.

“I want to thank all of you for the hard work that y’all did. We had the Envigo incident and Senator Boysko, Senator Marsden, Senator Favola, Senator Hackworth, Delegates Bell and Orrock worked very hard to make sure that we’re going to hold those people that breed dogs, especially beagles, for scientific purposes, accountable,” Stanley said.

In one of his floor-speech comedy routines on Monday, Stanley exhorted senators to adopt beagles rescued from the facility. Stanley said that there were 480 beagles that were overbred during the pandemic and that Envigo was allowing them to be adopted instead of euthanized. Half of those have already been adopted.

“So, I’m calling on anyone who wants the cutest little big-eared face. I’m not talking about Senator [Ryan] McDougle. It’s a dog, and they’re a lot more cuddly than he is,” Stanley said.

“I know we can get these dogs adopted because we have senators named Senator Barker. Not only that, we have a senator named Senator Ruff. And, my personal favorite, we have a senator named Senator Ryan McDogle,” Stanley said, purposely mispronouncing McDougle’s name.

State Senator Jill Vogel (R-Fauquier) said she has a beagle, and warned the senators against adopting a beagle.

“If [Stanley] tries to get you to adopt a beagle, you might want to think twice. And because my daughter is not in the gallery, I’m just going to tell you that that dog is the loudest dog, the yippiest dog. At two o’clock in the morning that dog just howls and howls.”

“That dog is the bane of my existence,” Vogel said, threatening to make Stanley take care of her dog for the rest of the session.

Stanley replied with a final pun aimed at State Senator Janet Howell (D-Fairfax).

“This reminds me of even another reason why we need to find homes for these beagles and then the occasional one that barks late at night, because we have Senator Howell,” he said.

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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Bill Stanley with Dog Breeder and Cute Dog” by Senator Bill Stanley.