380 A Phillips and A Bellotti contrary to the written assertions of the University that assured the animals would be monitored and treated if distressed Specifically the University stated ‘The animals will be observed every day during experimentation, usually for several hours The animals’ behavior will be carefully observed for signs of distress Any signs of distressed behavior or weight loss will trigger further assessment of the animal’s health The success of our research program demands and depends on the preservation of the state of their wellbeing.’ (IACUC Approval application 06-09015, University of Utah, C 5.0) The safeguards in place did not appear to be safeguarding Robert What happened to Robert, if done outside of a laboratory, would be deemed animal cruelty in violation of US laws Instead, the University of Utah cashed cheques, courtesy of the NIH, while cats like Robert remain locked up in college basements In an uncommon conclusion, Robert was released from the laboratory and adopted into a loving home in December 2009 Robert’s plight helped to amend Utah’s mandatory pound seizure into a discretionary law in 2010, thus putting the decision in the hands of shelters As discussed in the National Academies of Science 2009 report, there continues to be a debate of whether dogs purposefully bred for experimentation make better test subjects as compared to former family pets who ended up at a shelter The argument being that the former family pet would be overly stressed due to the unfamiliarity of the experimentation setting But with the growth of organizations like the Beagle Freedom Project, an organization that works with research laboratories to rescue dogs (and sometimes cats, horses and other animals) after the research study concludes, the former research animals once placed in an adoptive home begin to have the same personalities and characteristics as animals not bred for research So this has broadened the debate as to whether any dog and cat, purpose-bred or random-sourced, is appropriate in a laboratory setting Whether bred for experimentation or to live as a companion pet, studies have been clear that all animals feel pain, have feelings, and therefore would not make good research subjects (Kluger 2014) Yet the minimal legal safeguarding in place for experimentation animals are not recognizing the sentient nature of animals and are continuing to treat animals as property that not feel For example, in 2013, Melanie Kaplan adopted a purpose-bred beagle now named Alexander Hamilton from a taxpayer-funded animal experimentation laboratory As she told U.S News and World Report, ‘The whole ride home he was just drooling like crazy, shaking,’ she explained She covered the entire downstairs of her home in newspaper in case Hammy’s stomach