They Were Good Dogs Adds Producers as Beagle Rescue Film Nears Finish
2,100 beagles left a breeding farm in Wisconsin alive. Their rescue is now the centre of a documentary moving through post-production.
They Were Good Dogs has added Ross Kauffman, Sarah Sarandos and Scott Veltri as producers, according to Deadline. The project is the directorial debut of Lily Blavin, founder of Lightning Strikes Productions. It is now in post-production, the editing, sound-mixing and colour-finishing stage where raw footage becomes a finished film.
Blavin spent six years investigating beagle testing in the United States. The documentary focuses on testing practices estimated to kill 70,000 beagles a year, an estimate reported by Deadline. It follows paper trails, kennels and laboratories. It ends with dogs leaving them.
At the centre of the story is Ridglan Farms in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. The facility bred beagles for biomedical research, the use of animals to test medicines and study disease. A rescue deal initiated by Blavin secured the freedom of 2,100 beagles from Ridglan, according to Deadline. That single release gives the film its title and its through-line.
The producing team around Blavin is now taking shape. Robin Honan is listed as a producer, a role responsible for day-to-day decisions on budget, crew and schedule. Kauffman, Sarandos and Veltri join in that same role.
Geralyn White Dreyfous, Siena Oberman and Lucy Guo are attached as executive producers. In documentary financing, that credit usually means senior backers who provide money or support and help guide a film to completion and sale, without running the shoot itself.
For audiences unfamiliar with how documentaries reach screens, post-production is often the longest wait. Editing can take months. Music, legal review and final picture work follow. Only then do makers seek a premiere and a buyer for cinemas or streaming.
What makes this stand out is the access behind it. Six years is a long time to hold a story together. A first-time director carrying that much material into the edit is unusual. The arrival of experienced producers at this stage points to a push to finish.
