The dogs, cats, birds, rats, rabbits, and other animals that we surround ourselves with are more than just companions. For many, a beloved animal is a member of the family. But some animals don’t always get to live in their forever home, at least not at first. Here in the Midwest, helpless beagles end up abandoned, injured, and neglected. Next week, I will be joining an army of car journalists and rescue organizations to give two dozen dogs new homes across the country in the Pacific Northwest. This is Operation Frodo, and it might be the most heartwarming thing you’ll read all week.
The Midwest has a growing problem that’s hiding in plain sight. The beagle is adored by millions of people all over the world for its cute looks, friendly attitude, and playful nature. Beagles also have an exceptional ability to track other animals by scent, making them a favorite of hunters. You’d think that nobody would want to cause harm to such a lovely creature, but there’s a dark side to America’s adoration of beagles.
Here in the Midwest, beagles are pumped out of puppy mills, bred for medical research, and used for hunting. Thousands of these dogs end up in tragic situations. When hunters are done for a season, sometimes they abandon their beagles. Meanwhile, the hundreds of dogs flowing in from puppy mills aren’t always sold, and the ones that are not often get abandoned. Other dogs live in dire conditions in research facilities, are used for medical experimentation, or are disposed of when they’re no longer productive breeders. To give you an example of what it’s like out here, last month, ABC News Nightline reported on a testing facility in Wisconsin that activists have been trying to free thousands of dogs from for a decade:
As ABC 7 Eyewitness News reported last month, Big Dog Ranch Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy purchased 1,500 beagles from the facility. Thankfully, over 700 people have already stepped up to the plate to adopt those dogs, and the organizations believe they will be able to find those animals fitting homes.
Operation Frodo
There are many other beagles out here in the Midwest who are also looking for their own forever homes. Many of those beagles will be able to find their forever homes thanks to an army of car journalists, rescue organizations, and cars graciously loaned by automakers.
Back in 2021, auto journalist Nik Miles, whose work can be seen on NBC Sports, WPIX, KTLA, Fox5, and WGN, had a hole in his life after his own beagle, Joey, passed. As Nik searched for a new friend, he discovered the Bassett and Beagle Rescue of the Heartland (BBRH), which had a lovely beagle named Frodo, who needed a new home.
Coincidentally, Nik’s other dogs, like Samwise, were also named after characters from the Lord Of The Rings. Taking it as fate, Nik decided to bring Frodo home. Only, there was just one problem, as Frodo was in Nebraska while Nik was in Oregon. So, he hatched an idea to embark on an epic quest, just like in the Lord Of The Rings, to get Frodo to Portland. I will hand Nik the mic here to tell the rest of the story:
My husband Lowell and I saw the need after bringing him home. What started as one rescue quickly became something much bigger. During that first journey, we faced some of the harshest conditions imaginable — minus 70-degree wind chills in Wyoming, closed highways, dangerous ice, and a tragic moment when an ambulance that had passed us was later struck by a truck, resulting in the loss of two paramedics. That trip changed us forever and revealed just how urgent the rescue crisis had become across the Midwest. The Midwest faces a growing problem with abandoned hunting dogs, overcrowded shelters, puppy mills, and dogs released from testing facilities. Operation Frodo was created to help move dogs from overcrowded Midwest rescues to loving homes and rescue organizations on the West Coast, where adoption demand is higher and more resources are available.
Today, Operation Frodo has grown into a multi-state rescue mission involving volunteers, journalists, rescue organizations, and automakers donating vehicles for these life-saving journeys. This year’s rescue convoy includes the Cadillac Escalade IQ, Kia EV9, Hyundai IONIQ 9, and Lucid Gravity — quiet, climate-controlled electric vehicles perfectly suited for transporting rescue dogs safely and comfortably across long distances. Everything begins with Basset and Beagle Rescue of the Heartland, the core Midwest rescue partner that gathers dogs from across the region and coordinates many of the transfers. From there, dogs are transported to partner rescues, including Cascade Beagle Rescue in Oregon, Seattle Beagle Rescue, and Utah Beagle Rescue, where many find permanent homes and second chances.
In that first Operation Frodo in 2022, Nik, his partner Lowell, and journalist Javier Mota rescued four dogs. The next year, Operation Frodo expanded exponentially, with Ford, Hyundai, Nissan, and Subaru all providing vehicles for the growing number of journalists and the 12 dogs they rescued. The team then rescued seven more dogs in that same year. Since Operation Frodo began and had grown into an impressive beast of its own, a total of around 100 beagles had been rescued from the Midwest and delivered to the Cascade Beagle Rescue in Oregon, the Seattle Beagle Rescue, and the Utah Beagle Rescue.
Operation Frodo is not Nik’s only grand plan to save as many animals as possible. In 2018, he also founded Animal Rescue Rigs, a 501(c)(3) charity non-profit whose mission is to customize vehicles to be specially prepared to save animals from natural disasters. The first rig, a 2018 Nissan Titan XD Gas PRO-4X called ‘Paws One,’ has all kinds of off-road gear, built-in animal crates, and even a deployable inflatable boat for search and rescue operators.
This year, the Autopian is honored to take part in this important mission.
This summer’s Operation Frodo is special, too, as every vehicle provided by an automaker is an EV. Tomorrow, I will drive a Hyundai Ioniq 9 from my home in Northern Illinois to Omaha, Nebraska. Then, on Sunday, Operation Frodo will officially kick off as our all-EV convoy marches west.
The volunteer journalists won’t just be driving cars, either. We’ll be stewards for the rescue animals and take care of their every need. They will even be sleeping in hotel rooms with us. Nik has already kicked off his coverage of Operation Frodo, which you can check out by clicking here. Amusingly, the Ioniq 9 featured in that broadcast is on its way to my apartment.
The entire journey will take four days and cover 1,720 miles of America. Add on the 469 miles that I will drive just to get to the start point, and I’ll be covering 2,189 miles before flying home on Thursday. Given that I recently drove our Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet about 4,000 miles in one week, I’m so ready for this.
You can help the Operation Frodo mission out by visiting the Animal Rescue Rigs website, as well as the named rescues in this story. You can also follow the Operation Frodo journey on social media. This year, we’ll be using “#FrodoEV26” on our posts. As for me, you can expect daily updates beginning on Monday.
Again, I am so thankful and honored to be a part of this journey. It’s more than just driving cars, but making a difference in the lives of animals that have been injured, abandoned, or otherwise discarded. It’s bringing smiles to faces and, maybe, I’ll end up changing my own life along the way. Being able to drive the hottest EVs on sale right now is only the icing on the cake.
Update: This morning I will meet 16 dogs that will be transported to new homes in Salt Lake City and Portland. Nobody stepped up to adopt them here in the Midwest.
If you believe there is not a problem with abandoned beagles in the Midwest (which is larger than a single city), I would recommend you tell that to the 116 dogs Operation Frodo has now relocated and the organizations that sheltered them.
I grew up in Davis where government sponsored radiation research was performed on beagles starting in the 50s and into the 90s (!) before shutting down in 1993. The beagles did not sound like normal beagles because their vocal cords were severed to keep neighbors from complaining.
Over the years, they were subject so radioactive particles ranging from cesium to cobalt; strontium to plutonium. Their remains were so radioactive that they were stored in a specially designed facility which is now part of a 25-acre Superfund site.
My friends rescued a beagle but ultimately had to rehome him due to misbehavior including biting a FedEx delivery driver and even me when I was moving his bowl over a few inches. He was pretty neurotic when he first moved in with them and I think my friends were not up to the task of retraining a several year-old dog.
In any case, I applaud this group’s efforts.
All my dogs in adulthood have been adult adoptions, mostly shelters with one exception where I was able to adopt before a shelter was necessary. I have even converted the family. We’ve had such delightful dogs we’ve rescued along the way. A long way of getting to saying thank you for your efforts.
Wow, what an awesome rescue mission!! A lady who lives across the road from me adopted a rescued beagle; that dog is so sweet, and it’s been great to see the dog’s little personality emerge as she’s realized that she has a safe home now.
As a former beagle owner, and current basset hound owner, I just don’t get it. Who could abandon a hound dog? They are the most loyal and loving dogs I have ever experienced!
As a former beagle – well, owner doesn’t seem quite appropriate. Steward? Lackey? I can only say: You go, Mercedes!
Not beagle related, but both of my cats are rescues! Goose is from a shelter and Sparkle showed up cold, shivering and soaked on a former coworker’s doorstep as a tiny kitten on Thanksgiving. He moved to Alaska and could only take his original cat, so I adopted him. He’s the tux you see in many of the pictures I post on Discord. Goose is super cuddly, but he’s not a lap cat like Sparkle and hates being picked up. I refer to to them as my children and if anything ever happens to them it will destroy me.
Nice work Mercedes et. al. My wife and I have rescue that came from the south, Mika. She was found wandering the streets in Mississippi. She wants to be friends with every person she meets. But, like many of these beagles, we suspect that she was abandoned by hunters. Why? Well being as friendly as she is, she will go up to you (and you and you and..) introduce herself. Careful if your door or hatch is open because she will hop in to go for a ride.
There is only one time in the five years that we’ve had her that she didn’t want to meet somebody. We were walking her in the woods and we came upon a hunter in camo with a rifle. She stopped dead in her tracks about 20 yards away. Started to bark. Didn’t want to go anywhere near the guy. We had to put her back on leash on coax her past him. No aggression- just fear. We suspect that she was heartlessly abandoned by hunters.
How people can use and abuse any animal is beyond me. That said, she would be terrible as a hunting dog… because she will chase any critter in the woods or our yard. She loves to chase deer and I always wonder- if you catch Bambi, what is your plan?
Thanks for doing your part to help those sweet puppies!
My wife and I donate to Beagle Freedom Project, and have/had a couple beagles of our own. They’re one of the most trusting breeds and want nothing but love, which is part of why they are used for so much testing. Glad to see you support this effort! Much love and good luck.
If this has a political bend to it, go ahead and explain it to me. Why are puppy breeding businesses quite entrenched in the Midwest, especially those with most egregious operating conditions? A simple explanation; a dearth of regulations and humanity.
It makes sense if they are poor and struggling to make ends meet, it is the “Rust Belt” for a reason.
I’m going to guess it has more to do with locality; breeders like to trade animals to reduce inbreeding so a given breed will cluster in a region. Also, it’s easier/cheaper to get a patch of land without nosy neighbors in the Midwest, and the hard freezes keep pests down.
Also, medical research mainly uses beagles for their dog models, and there’s a few research facilities in the area.
This is fantastic work, thanks so much for helping bring this issue out into the light and doing what you can. I was raised in a Great Dane family with a small pack that we rescued up in the northwest, but when I got married things changed pretty dramatically. Literally the first thing my wife said after she said yes to marrying me was “Can I have a puppy?” We were in an apartment at the time with a 35lbs limit on dogs so I found her a beagle puppy that had been abandoned and we adored him. He was a runt(the best dogs always are), and he had medical issues, but he was fantastic. He used to boss around my mom’s dane, and race with the horses at my parents house, he didn’t chase them, he’d scamper into the pasture and wait until they noticed him and came over to play. Fred was a grumpy old man from the day he was born, but that just made him more endearing, my dad used to come steal him from his kennel to take him on road trips to job sites while my wife and I were at work. He still talks about Fred standing on the center console of his old dodge truck howling at the cars going by. We miss him dearly after one of his seizures finally took him from us about 8 years ago. Long story longer, I’ll have to tell my dad you guys are coming through, it looks like your route will take you right past where he lives in Utah.
who’s chopping onions?
This is amazing! Good luck on your journey!
You may be interested in checking out Pilots N Paws and Pilots to the Rescue, both consist of pilots using their personal aircraft to freely transport animals at risk of euthanasia to adoptive families and no-kill shelters.
Heck yea this is rad! Great to see the automakers support this too, it’s great PR for sure.
I’ve been around beagles my whole life. My grandfather had Beagles, my father had Beagles, I had an interlude with a couple of Basset Hounds – but just last year, I rescued a Beagle / Dachshund (Doxie) named Fergus (the Brave), who is so much fun that I hate to leave the house without him.
I wish I could rescue them all.
Fergus the Brave sounds adorable.
Kudos to Mercedes and this whole crew for this great project! Looking forward to some good stories from this adventure.
Oh my gosh, I love this! Thank you for being a part of this Mercedes!
Good on you Mercedes. I have two beagle rescues, Little Lou Reed and Joan of Bark (from Envigo). Amazing dogs, but definitely very vocal. Have fun, maybe we’ll see you in Oregon!
I know that distinctive YORP! well.
My beagle’s name is Bourbon. I had to explain to the neighbors that that’s just what she sounds like; she’s not dieing or being beaten.
Godspeed, Mercedes, wishing you all success in this beautiful mission. I always assumed part of the issue was the same thing causing Huskies to crowd into shelters, people adopt them because they’re beautiful (and, in the case of beagles, look like puppies literally their entire lives), but don’t realize how stubborn and challenging they can be to raise and dump them at the first sign of difficulty, but I really had no idea until recently that they were the preferred breed to factory farm for testing purposes
Well this is genuinely nice. All positive, five stars, good stuff. Can’t even make a joke about Stellantis based on this post. Just sincere good feels.
I love beagles. I had 3 when I was growing up, one at a time. Snoopy, Tiger, and Spike (not original names, I know). My wife also rescued a beagle/basset mix from a horrible woman who wanted to put him down because he wasn’t a good hunter. No, her name was not Kristi Noem. He became a real pain in the ass because of health problems, but you could say the same of my wife. Despite that, I love my wife, and I loved Yogi.
Expect a fat donation to Project Frodo incoming.