Some things arrive quietly. Others stop you mid-scroll. This was the second kind.
When I first used Embark’s Breed and Health Test for Arlo, I was looking for practical answers — whether he was 100% beagle, his health background, and a little more context around the dog I had adopted. What I did not expect was that the same test would lead me to his whole family tree — his mom, his dad, siblings, and 52 half-siblings scattered across the country, all survivors of a breeding facility that was shut down. What began as a DNA test became something else entirely: a way into a rescue dog’s story — and a family tree bigger than I could have imagined.
Where It Started
After our family beagle Hunter passed away, I was deep in grief. Around the same time, news broke about the Envigo rescue — a Virginia breeding facility that supplied dogs for animal testing, where nearly 4,000 beagles were removed after federal investigations uncovered horrific neglect. Arlo was one of them.
When I saw the news, I knew I wanted to help. I had just moved into a pet-friendly apartment in LA, was working from home, and going through a breakup. I had the space — physically and emotionally — to hold a dog who needed a gentle place to land.
Arlo came through Cage to Couch Rescue, and after a screening process, I drove out to Anaheim in August 2022 to meet one of the final groups of Envigo beagles. More than twenty beagles had already been let into the yard by the time I arrived — some exploring, some chasing each other with surprising playfulness. Arlo was not one of them. Instead, he stayed in his crate drinking water with fear sitting heavily in his eyes. There was something reflective and tender that I felt connected to. Or perhaps it was two fragile hearts recognizing each other.
I spent time with other dogs, as the rescuers encouraged. But I kept coming back to him. And then they lifted him out and placed him in my arms. His little paws wrapped around me, and I knew. The drive home was silent, music off, knowing that even the smallest sound can overwhelm them, I tried to be gentle and intentional with every move. That first night he was frozen with fear when I carried him into my apartment. I held him against my chest and hoped he knew he was safe now.
Arlo’s first night (August 2022)
How Embark Works
The Embark’s Breed and Health Test is a simple cheek swab you do at home. Once submitted, Embark screens for over 400 breeds and more than 270 genetic health conditions — giving you a comprehensive picture of who your dog is and what to watch for. Arlo was indeed 100% beagle — not a complete surprise, as beagles are the #1 breed used for animal testing given their docile nature. The real discovery came through Relative Finder.
Embark ‘s Relative Finder continuously cross-references your dog’s DNA against every other dog in their database — one of the largest canine DNA databases in the world. When a match is found, you get notified. The closer the match, the higher the shared DNA percentage.
For rescue dogs especially — dogs whose histories are incomplete, whose origins are unknown, whose families were scattered across the country — this feature is something else entirely. It does not just tell you what your dog is. It tells you where they come from.
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The Long Way Home
When Arlo arrived, he was not yet himself.
The Envigo beagles came from a world of laboratory confinement — fluorescent light, concrete floors, the stillness that settles into an animal when it has never known anything else. Arlo did not know grass. He did not know sunlight through a window. The first week he hid in corners, had to be hand-fed, and at night squeezed himself into tight spaces as if being tucked away could keep him safe. He had never walked on a leash. Outside, everything overwhelmed him — people, cars, shadows, sound.
Healing happened in inches. About three weeks in, I saw his tail wiggle for the first time in the morning. By the one-month mark, we had gone to the beach, where he ran with total uninhibited freedom that healed a part of me too. He became interested in food. He started begging while I ate. He rested his head on my leg while I sat on the floor doing my makeup. A vet told me that in situations like this, it can be as if the first year of a dog’s life was interrupted — and what I was watching was a puppy finally arriving.
It took nearly a year for him to be fully himself (a work in progress, as we all are). Playful, stubborn in the way beagles are designed to be stubborn, deeply committed to the idea that every meal is his last. The dog who arrived tentative has become the dog who steals socks and takes up three-quarters of the bed. I came into his life thinking I would be the one helping him heal. Along the way, he became a teacher — in patience, in softness, in resilience, and in humor. For such a timid little dog, he had a goofy spirit waiting just underneath it all.
But the story was not finished. It turned out we had only found the beginning of it.
Arlo’s first (timid) week
First time at the beach!
Three weeks in, turning into a true beagle
Made new friends by month six!
A year later in his favorite cuddly position
And always staring me down
First snow trip two years in (a master off leash :))
The Unexpected Discovery through Embark’s Relative Finder
Through Embark ’s Relative Finder feature, I found a beagle on the East Coast who shared 61% of Arlo’s DNA.
His mom.
Her name is Neely, and like Arlo, she was rescued from Envigo.
After so many unknowns around Arlo’s early life — so many moments of daydreaming about whether I could ever find a sibling, anyone connected to his past — there she was. Not as some abstract part of his history, but as a living dog in a loving home, having survived too.
Through Embark , I connected with Neely’s adopter in Maryland, and the parallels only made the discovery more emotional. Neely was also very timid when she first arrived. Her adopter also had no prior experience with a rescue dog. And just as I had lost Hunter before Arlo, she had lost a beloved dog before adopting Neely. Two women carrying grief, both finding unexpected connection through fragile beagles who needed safety — and receiving some healing in return.
Neely had been used as a mating dog and endured a kind of cruelty that is hard to imagine, yet she blossomed into a deeply loving dog. Learning that about her has meant so much. That Arlo’s sensitivity, softness, and loyalty may come not only from what he survived — but from where he comes from.
We live across the country, so meeting has not been simple. But I would love to make it happen one day.
6 Siblings, 52 Half-Siblings, One Father, and the Oldest Known Rescued Beagle from Envigo
Through Embark ‘s Relative Finder feature, the discovery kept expanding. Neely’s adopter connected me to a dedicated Facebook group — run by an organizer who cross-references the ear tattoos rescue dogs carry from their time in the laboratory, piecing together the Envigo family tree one match at a time. When I joined, the organizer was already waiting. It turned out they had been looking for Arlo! They were so happy we found each other. It is painstaking, unglamorous work. And also the kind that changes everything.
Through this network, we found Arlo’s father, 6 siblings, and 52 half-siblings. And then came the detail that made me chuckle: Arlo is essentially Envigo royalty — his great-grandfather is the oldest known rescued beagle from Envigo. Within a week of joining, the organizer officially welcomed us with a post mapping out Arlo’s full family tree. Arlo’s father lives on the East Coast, and his adopter welcomed us warmly — sharing stories, photos, everything they knew about him. “You’re handsome just like me!” his dad’s adopter wrote in the group. The resemblance made it land perfectly.
Arlo’s dad was a breeder dog, like his mom. Both spent their lives in a system that asked everything of them and gave very little back. And yet — in their eyes, in the photos shared by people who love them now — there is something that has not been taken. A steadiness. A presence. A playfulness and light that, despite everything, still shine through.
Being connected to Arlo’s family has made his journey feel less lonely than ever. Beyond the family tree, the group has become a genuine community: a place to share questions, compare notes on behavior, and sit with people who understand exactly what it means to love one of these dogs.
In San Diego, one of Arlo’s littermates is living their best life. I hope someday soon to reunite them.
What Embark Made Possible
None of this existed without Embark’s Dog DNA test.
The Envigo rescue story is, at its core, a story about animals who were made invisible by design — numbered, not named, part of a system that had no interest in their individual histories. Embark ‘s Relative Finder does something radical in that context: it gives them their history back. It says that the dog in front of you did not arrive from nowhere. That there are parents and siblings and cousins and half-cousins, and that those connections are real and findable and worth learning about.
For Arlo, it meant a family. A mom with his sensibilities and resilience. A dad who looks like a carbon copy of him. Six siblings and fifty-two half-siblings scattered across the country, connected by DNA and by the particular resilience of animals who deserved so much more.
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A Homecoming
The best part of all this is that it still feels like only the beginning. There are more relatives, more reunions, more pieces of the story waiting to surface. And beyond the family tree, Embark continues to be a resource — the app has grown into something that supports the whole journey, not just the discovery.
My love for beagles goes back way further in time and continents. Where my brother and I would press our faces against pet store windows when we were little just to be near beagle puppies in Taiwan. To Hunter who led our family after we moved to the States, and whose loss eventually opened the door to Arlo. Every beagle has left a mark. And they deserve a world that does the same for them.
Through Embark, Arlo did not just find his mom. He found proof that his softness, his sensitivity, his sweetness did not appear out of nowhere. That there were others. A whole family who endured so much and are finally, each in their own home, learning what safe feels like.
For a dog who began with no name, that is everything.
If Alro’s Story Moved You
For every Arlo, every Neely, every beagle now sleeping in someone’s bed and stealing their socks — there are still animals in facilities just like Envigo. The system that produced them has not ended. Beagles remain the most commonly used animal in laboratory testing, chosen precisely for the same docile, trusting nature that makes Arlo lean his head against my leg while I do my makeup. That gentleness was used against them. It is also what makes them so easy to love once they are finally safe.
The Envigo rescue was one of the largest in US history — and the work is ongoing. In March 2026, activist and attorney Wayne Hsiung led a landmark rescue at Ridglan Farms in Wisconsin — another testing facility — bringing national attention back to the ongoing use of beagles in animal testing. A few organizations worth knowing:
- Cage to Couch Rescue — the organization that brought Arlo home.
- Beagle Freedom Project — advocates for the release of animals from laboratory testing.
- ASPCA — supports animal rescue, adoption, and anti-cruelty legislation nationwide.
- Wayne Hsiung & the Simple Heart movement — leading legal and activist efforts to end animal testing, including the recent Ridglan Farms case.
- PETA’s Cruelty-Free List — a searchable database of brands that do not test on animals. One of the most direct ways to make a difference with your everyday purchases.
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A note: this post contains affiliate links. If you use them to shop Embark, we may earn a small commission — which helps us keep telling stories like this one. We only share things we genuinely believe in, and Arlo is living proof of that.
The beginning of this story lives in a pet store window in Taipei, a beagle named Hunter, and a promise I made when he was gone. Start there.
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