The Smoking Beagles

Mary Beith was the undercover reporter who took pictures of dogs being forced to inhale cigarette smoke, resulting in an iconic 1975 People splash: "The smoking beagles."

The animals were being used in an experiment to test a new (allegedly) "safe" cigarette.

The story behind the story was a classic example of investigative journalism - a mixture of determination, chutzpah, good luck and comedy.

Beith, then working for The People in Manchester, was asked by its investigations supremo, Laurie Manifold, to see if she could obtain a job in an ICI animal-testing laboratory. She chose the Macclesfield lab for the simple reason that it was close to her home and, in spite of lacking insurance cards, managed to land the job.

Part of her work involved trussing the dogs into fabric slings, essentially straitjackets.

Some of the 48 beagles used in the experiment were expected to smoke as many as 30 cigarettes in a day.

Beith was equipped with a spy-style camera and snapped a number of shots of the chain-smoking beagles. But when she took the film back to the office the dark room staff laughed at her efforts.

And one told her:

"The next time you take pics of those beagles, Mary, please be sure to take your finger off the lens!"

So the following day she went back to the lab and got the shot that you can see at the beginning of the article, the one that shocked People readers.

In all, Beith spent seven days at the lab in the summer of 1974. But, she said, "the paper then sat on the story for around six months."

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It caused a sensation when it was finally published in 1975 and Beith won an award as campaigning journalist of the year.