MALE guinea pigs Hamish and Angus found a home with Jane Whyte, of Aranda, eight months ago.

She says they were a little stressed when they arrived, but settled in pretty quickly and are happy to be handled; “they are very sweet”.

Hamish and Angus were rehomed by the Liberty Foundation, an organisation that, since 2017, has been releasing, rehabilitating and rehoming animals used in Australian research facilities to adopters in the ACT and NSW.

Liberty Foundation founder Paula Wallace says some research facilities in Australia have licences to use animals as part of their work. The licences cover all species in a variety of different testing and research-based activities.

“Up until now the vast majority of the animals have been euthanised, but many of them are young enough and healthy enough to move out into the community and live out the course of their natural lives,” says Paula.

The Liberty Foundation focuses on rehoming a full range of animals, including dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rats, fish, mice, rabbits and reptiles.

“We’ve got six research establishments signed up with us. We have agreements in place with the establishments to ensure the process is done correctly and we have risk-based measures in place to ensure the welfare of the animals and to protect the confidentiality of the research establishments,” she says. 

The foundation has successfully rehomed every animal that has come into its care, that’s 100 to 120 animals a year.

The measures Paula has in place mean that the research facilities have to disclose any information or conditions relevant to the animals’ ongoing care. The adopters are made aware of this, but they aren’t told specifically where the animal has come from.

“I explain to people that this is what happened at the facility and explain how the animal may have been involved and it usually relieves them,” says Paula.

She says some of the research conducted is basic science, using animals to investigate aspects of human disease or using animals to test animal products such as flea and tick treatments.

“The research facilities give us a lot of information on the individual animals so that we can match them to their best suited home, and they give us time to do that,” says Paula.

“We don’t shy away from where the animals come from, but we focus on the outcomes that we are getting for them. You know that if you are taking them, then they’re not getting euthanised, which is fantastic.”

She says the most common question is, what’s wrong with the animal? People imagine that it is somehow disabled or unwell or presents risks, but that’s not the case.

“The Australian regulations are very clear and very strict, no genetically modified animal can ever leave a facility,” she says.

Animals crave affection and want to form a bond with someone, and Paula says most of the animals they rehome are unusually affectionate.

“They really take to their new life, they acclimatise really quickly and they realise the adopter is there for them and they really lap it up, they love every minute of it,” says Paula.

Jane Whyte says: “I got in touch with Paula and she was very thorough. She didn’t just give them away, she wanted to be sure that I wasn’t adopting them as an impulse thing.”

Paula sent her information about bedding and housing and once Jane had their new home set up, she sent photos to Paula for approval.

“She was really helpful and obviously very interested in the welfare of the animals. We still keep in touch and she’s always there as a resource,” says Jane.

“The laboratory wouldn’t release them if they weren’t healthy and normal. They’re not traumatised or diseased, nothing is wrong with them and I would rather get them out of that situation. This is a much kinder and better, more responsible way of doing it,” says Jane.

Belco Pets’ owner Alexis Kilby has a charity box in store for the Liberty Foundation.

“A lot of people ask us for rabbits, guinea pigs or mice and rats so it made sense to find a rescue outlet that we can refer people towards,” says Alexis. A customer mentioned the Liberty Foundation to Alexis and it seemed a perfect fit.

“They’re among the smaller rescue groups in Canberra that people haven’t heard about so that was the reason that we wanted to support them,” says Alexis.

More at libertyfoundation.org.au