SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Police say animal rights activists broke into a laboratory in southeastern Brazil and released 178 beagles being used for drug tests.

Officer Edivaldo Nunes of the Sao Roque police department says that "a large group of activists shouting 'save the dogs' stormed the Instituto Royal Lab Laboratory early Friday morning and drove away with the animals.

He says none of the dogs have been recovered and no one has been arrested.

The Folha d S. Paulo newspaper says that the lab used the dogs to test for adverse effects of drugs manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry.

Phone calls to the lab for comment went unanswered on Saturday.