Melanie Kaplan’s Lab Dog: A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research is part memoir, part investigative journalism, and part love story between a woman and the beagle who changed her life. It’s also one of the most accessible, poignant, and necessary books to date about the hidden world of animal research.
The story begins in 2013, when Kaplan fosters a shy beagle fresh out of a Virginia laboratory. Identified only by a tattoo in his ear, CAICWZ becomes Alexander Hamilton—“Hammy”—and slowly, tentatively, begins to discover life outside a cage. Kaplan, a journalist living in Washington, D.C., intends to help Hammy transition to a permanent home. Instead, she finds herself drawn into his trauma, resilience, and ultimately his future as her lifelong companion.
What sets Lab Dog apart is Kaplan’s refusal to leave Hammy’s past unexplored. His tattoo becomes the thread she follows through a decades-old, multi-billion-dollar industry that breeds, experiments on, and discards tens of thousands of dogs every year. Kaplan takes readers inside the history of U.S. dog experimentation, from the notorious case of Pepper the Dalmatian in 1965—whose theft and death in a research lab spurred the Animal Welfare Act—to modern-day industrial beagle breeders in New York, Virginia, and Wisconsin. She shows how these “dog farms” operate on an industrial scale, far removed from the pets who curl up on our couches, yet genetically identical to them.
Kaplan balances her reporting with deeply personal reflections. Her descriptions of Hammy’s first tentative steps on grass, his fear of household noises, and his slow blossoming into a beloved travel companion are heart-wrenching and hopeful in equal measure. Readers see how laboratory life leaves scars that never fully fade, but also how patience and compassion can restore dignity and joy.
Importantly, Lab Dog does not reduce the issue to black and white. Kaplan interviews researchers, ethicists, activists, and policy makers, grappling with the difficult questions: Do the ends ever justify the means in animal research? What do we truly gain—and what do the animals lose? Her background as a journalist keeps the book grounded in facts while her lived experience with Hammy infuses it with undeniable heart.
The book also highlights the growing movement for transparency and change. From post-research adoption laws to new scientific methods that replace animal use, Kaplan spotlights the advocates and ordinary citizens working to hold laboratories accountable and envision a future where animals are not expendable test subjects.
At its core, Lab Dog is a love story: one woman and one dog, bound by circumstance, teaching each other trust, resilience, and the possibility of a better world. But it is also a rallying cry. Readers who love animals will come away informed, outraged, and inspired to act.
For anyone who has ever looked into the eyes of a dog and seen a friend, not a number, Lab Dog is essential reading. It’s a testament to the power of companionship—and a stark reminder of the urgent need to rethink the way animals are used in the name of science.
Visit https://navs.org/lab-dog/ to learn more and to secure your copy today!
