When you think about the animals used in scientific research, mice or monkeys might come to mind.

But you should also think about beagles.

As science journalist Melanie D.G. Kaplan describes in her new book, “ Lab Dog ,” tens of thousands of beagles are used in the U.S. for medical research, testing chemical safety, and more. I asked her why that is.

“The pat answer I always heard was that because they’re docile and small and you can easily pick them up and they are pretty much happy to do whatever you want, which is not good news for the ones in the lab,” she said during this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast.”

There’s another reason they are so often used in research, though: “After the Civil War, when beagles were brought over here from England … they were trying to breed a be

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