MATTAWAN, MI—The pesticide testing that would have resulted in the death of 36 beagles at a Michigan laboratory has come to an end, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and the company that sought the testing, announced on Monday, March 18.

The decision came less than a week after the Humane Society released the results of an undercover investigation of the Charles River Laboratories in Mattawan, Michigan.

The investigation started in April 2019 and lasted until August 2019, which found several dozen dogs poisoned, force-fed fungicide and killed in order to test pesticides and pharmaceutical products that are sold abroad. Corteva Agriscience, the agricultural division of DowDupont, had been testing a new fungicide called Adavelt, which was being force-fed to the beagles in gelatin capsules for a year. In July 2019, the dogs would have been euthanized to assess the effects of the fungicide.

The Humane Society publicized the results of the investigation, including photos and videos last week. More than 300,000 people signed an online petition on the Humane Society’s website calling for an end to the testing.

“We have immediately ended the study that was the subject of attention last week and will make every effort to rehome the animals that were a part of the study,” said Corteva in a public statement. Corteva said that Brazilian authorities granted its request for a waiver to forego the one-year test.

The Humane Society called the recent development a win.

“We applaud Corteva for making the right decision by ending the test and urge them to work with us to get the dogs out of the laboratory and to our shelter and rescue partners so they can be adopted,” said Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society, in a blog post.

In addition to the beagle test, HSUS documented tests on dogs by at least 25 different companies, including one by Paredox Therapeutics in which beagles were used to test the impact of drugs poured into the chest cavity. Another test, by Beyond Therapeutics, involved dogs being used to test the surgical implantation of a device to pump drugs from the spinal canal.