With her sad eyes and lowered ears, here is Hope, the first Albanian laboratory dog to be re-homed in England.

The seven-year-old lurcher collie cross is pictured here, happy and healthy with her new owner, Mandy Flisher, who has waited more than two months for her arrival from Greece after being freed from the testing centre in Albania.

The two were united at the port in Folkestone, thanks to months of negotiations by Unite to Care, the animal campaign body.

“When I first saw her, you could tell she had been through a lot,” said Mrs Flisher, of St Gregory’s Close, Deal.

“Her tail was in between her legs and she was shaking.”

Hope started out in life as a stray before she was used in experiments. She has undergone traumatic tests, some that involved her abdomen being opened up by scientists.

Usually, dogs deemed unusable in future experiments are put down, but Vicky Fraser of Unite to Care is working alongside the Beagles Freedom Project to ban it - and Hope’s new lease of life is thanks to their hard work.

Since arriving at her new home, which Mrs Flisher shares with her daughter Sammie, 19, and their King Charles Spaniel Gemma, Hope has come out of her shell.

But she is still very cautious, despite being confident enough to walk up to friendly visitors for a sniff and a stroke.

Mrs Flisher said her involvement in re-homing Hope came about through Facebook, because she is involved in the Ban the Badger cull campaign.

“I started looking at lots of animal welfare campaigns and I came across Unite to Care,” she said.

“They were having a protest against vivisection. So I went to the protest, got talking and I put myself down as an adoptee.”

She said 92% of research is void and can be harmful to humans and she quotes numerous medicines whose release was hampered by poorly conducted research on animals.

“I was absolutely ecstatic. It was a very unique experience. It’s nice to know you can open your arms to give that little dog a new life” - Mandy Flisher

In April she was told about Hope and it took eight weeks until her delivery at Folkestone.

“I was absolutely ecstatic, she said. “It was a very unique experience. It’s nice to know you can open your arms to give that little dog a new life.”

In the past eight weeks, Hope has travelled from Albania to the embassy in Greece and then to a lady who did a lot of work with her preparing for re-homing. She was then taken to Holland, and from Holland to the UK.

“Literally the only thing you have to watch with her is she will want to run because she doesn’t want to be caged.

"I’ve been amazed at how well she’s adapted. She’s been rolling around the floor, she’s had her own bath, and she’s had her first walk.

“If the big wig companies can allow the animals to be released, they can be rehabilitated into loving homes and experience the rest of their lives in the way a dog should.

“That’s what Unite to Care want to do,” she said.