Beagle pups released into the outside world after spending entire lives caged in labs

WATCH these beagle pups take their first steps into the outside world after spending their lives locked away for animal testing.

Outside chance... The nine beagle puppies were finally given a chance to breath in fresh air.

A GROUP of beagle pups who have spent their entire lives locked up in the confines of a laboratory were given their first taste of freedom recently.

Video of the heartwarming moment was posted to YouTube by the Beagle Freedom Project, a voluntary group that works to rescue animals from captivity.

The pups are shown being carried into a Las Vegas garden and making their first tentative steps into the outside world.

They move cautiously at first, hiding behind bushes, trees and an old wooden pen, intimidated by all the light and space.

Eventually, the adorable pups grow in confidence and are later seen dashing around the garden happily.

Until their release the pups had been leading miserable lives as laboratory test subjects.

However in recent years, and under pressure from animal rights groups, a growing number of research labs have decided to release retired lab animals in to the world.

Running wild... The dogs play happily in the sunshine.

In a similar release three years ago, 38 chimps used for AIDS-related research in labs in Austria were moved into their own purpose-built sanctuary after 30 years in captivity.

Many of the Austrian chimps had been kidnapped from African jungles as babies and flown to Europe, where they were locked in metal laboratory cages to be used in a long series of experiments.

They had suffered horribly, had been pumped with chemicals and some even infected with the HIV virus in a bid to find treatments for the disease.

When they were finally let out in to the open they couldn’t hide their joy, smiling and hugging in the sunshine.

New dawn... The chimps in Austria leave their enclosure for the first time in 30 years.

A witness said: “They hugged as if saying, ‘We’re finally free’. And then they laughed.”

In another story last year, a similar release took place in Louisiana. Video showed the chimps, released by the American Humane Society, gazing in wonder at the skies.

American scientists from the US National Institute of Health said in 2011 that they would phase out most invasive research on chimpanzees. There are currently around 1300 chimps in 11 different US labs.

Previously, chimps have been used for a range of biomedical and other research. They are favoured by scientists because they share 99 per cent of our own DNA.