Victoria Silvstedt wants good homes for medical test dogs

Model/actress Victoria Silvstedt is urging bosses at a leading pharmaceutical company in her native Sweden to find homes for hundreds of dogs due to be shipped to the U.K. for medical tests.

The Playboy star has written a letter to board members at British-Swedish company AstraZeneca requesting they offer up the 300 beagles, bread at their facility in Orkelljunga, Sweden, for adoption rather than experimentation.

Silvstedt was informed of the dogs' plight by members of animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and decided to speak out about the situation in a bid to save the animals.

She writes, "I was horrified to learn from my friends at PETA that AstraZeneca is considering shipping hundreds of beagles to laboratories in the UK to be used in cruel tests when the breeding facility in Orkelljunga closes down. Anyone who lives with a dog, as I do, knows that dogs are thinking, feeling individuals who do not deserve to be caged, scared and used as disposable test tubes with tails.

"They reward our care and attention with boundless loyalty and adoration, and we should surely not betray them. In experiments, dogs are often forced to ingest massive quantities of toxic substances, including pesticides, leading to immense suffering before they are finally killed... The beagles at the AstraZeneca breeding facility deserve a second chance at life."