>> larry david reprizing his role as bernie sanders this weekend on "snl." always a hit. >>> scientists in china are doing some pretty controversial research. they are trying to to genetically modify beagles to make them more muscular but as seth doane reports, they have been accused of animal cruelty. >> reporter: the 2,000 beagles at this pound in southern china. institute of biomedical institute of health claim they are the first to alter the successful genetic makeup of dogs. they doubled the muscle mass of meese beagles through the process of gene editing. we knocked out a gene which would ordinarily stop muscles from growing so these dogs became much more muscular, li told us. scientists say the idea here is not to create designer pets, but rather to mimic diseases like parkinson's in these dogs and then treat them in an effort to find a cure. ultimately, the idea is to create a safe, effective drug. beagles are often used in research against the wishes of animal rights advocates. scientists at a lab in shinzin created pigs and selling them as pets for