Some held white carnations. Others wore white Tyvek suits. Several hundred waded through feces-filled moats to cluster at Ridglan’s gates and plead with authorities.
Their goal? To remove ~2000 beagles from wire cages stacked in the windowless sheds of Ridglan Farms– a puppy mill 25 miles southwest of Madison, WI that breeds thousands of beagles for biomedical experimentation. Under recent scrutiny by state agencies and a special prosecutor, Ridglan was cited for 311 violations, had its manager’s veterinary license suspended, and agreed to stop selling beagles by July 1, 2026, to avoid criminal prosecution.
But despite its tarnished reputation, the company abetting animal suffering was protected by Dane County deputies, who tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed would-be rescuers, shooting them with rubber bullets and pelting them with OC Stinger grenades.
“My 26 deputies were outnumbered,” Dane County Sheriff Barrett explained.
True; that was the organizers’ strategy: assemble too many peaceful protesters for the sheriff to arrest, transport and jail. Over 2,500 signed up for the April 19 action on SaveTheDogs.io; about 1000 were ready when the action began Saturday, April 18– one day earlier.
The organizers’ assumption that nearly 1000 volunteers would be individually arrested and jailed was utterly wrong.
But recognizable leaders were targeted for immediate arrest. Wayne Hsiung “was arrested within minutes of arriving at Ridglan Farms based on probable cause for conspiracy to commit burglary.” Dane4Dogs founder, Rebekah Robinson, was “barely out of the car before… a 200-pound man in tactical gear tackled (her) to the ground.”
The rest of the crowd would be “controlled” via non-lethal chemical weapons.
Having never suffered the tactics police deploy against alleged “Antifa”, ICE protesters, or BLM, many animal rights activists were stunned when they were shot in the back, kicked and tackled, or had eyewear removed by law enforcement before being pepper-sprayed full in the face.
Kim Pozo, who described herself as a “disabled grandma with asthma, cane (sic) to rescue 2 Beagles for my grandkids. I fell off a haybale running from teargas…Felt like I was getting murdered. 1st time in my life police were hurting humans and not getting us an ambulance.”
Co-leader of the Coalition to Save Ridglan’s Dogs Aidan Kankyoku admitted: “I just did not have a correct model… for how effectively tear gas and pepper spray can incapacitate a nonviolent crowd.”
On Friday, Hsiung disregarded volunteers who sought training on police brutality, (chemical and otherwise). Saturday afternoon, he apologized from jail: “Leaders like me must be accountable for our decisions and ask forgiveness from all those who suffered harm…”
The would-be rescuers got their asses kicked.
Not a single beagle was removed.
Insult followed injury when ~100 took their complaints to the Capital on April 20. Neither Wisconsin Governor Evers nor Attorney General Kaul bothered to acknowledge constituents who chanted “Free the Dogs” and “Give Us A Meeting” for hours in the building’s hallway.
On Earth Day Governor Evers told a reporter, “Frankly, I have no authority over what happens [at Ridglan].”
Then, in a stunning reversal, Ridglan announced it would sell 1,500 beagles to two other rescue groups (Center for a Humane and Big Dog Ranch Sanctuary) for a confidential sum. Big Dog board member Lara Trump initially offered $1 million for 2000 beagles on April 18, as chaos and police brutality were livestreamed on UnChained TV. By April 29, an agreement was reached.
By the time this post is in CounterPunch, hundreds of beagles will have already been carried out of Ridglan to see sunlight, breathe fresh air, and step onto grass for the first time. They’ll decompress from the cacophony of barking and the overwhelming smell of ammonia. They’ll get potty trained and learn to walk on a leash. Then they’ll be up for fostering and adoption.
To understand this stunning release after a painful, humiliating defeat, it helps to know there’s over nine years of accumulated animosity between Wayne Hsiung and Ridglan Farms.
April 17, 2017- Three unmasked Direct Action Everywhere (DXE) investigators in biohazard coveralls enter Ridglan through an unlocked door, spend over an hour filming and photographing conditions inside, and leave with three beagles who seem to need emergency veterinary care. One beagle, who spun ceaselessly in her cage, was later diagnosed blind.
mid-May 2018 – Individual DXE members post images of rescued beagles on their Facebook pages, while the organization uploads video taken inside Ridglan on YouTube. They share DXE footage and their investigative report, The Dogs of Science, with Glenn Greenwald who writes Inside the Barbaric U.S. Industry of Dog Experimentation and interviews Hsiung as one of the 2017 DXE investigators.
DXE investigator Paul Pickelsimer from the action in 2017.
+ August 2021 – Based on social media posts and Greenwald’s article (above), the Dane County District Attorney’s Office charged Paul Darwin Picklesimer, Wayne Hsiung, and Eva Hamer with felony burglary and theft, for which they face up to 16 years in prison and $35,000 in fines.
+ March 7 and 18, 2024– Although the criminal trial is set for March 18, 2024, Ridglan Farms dismisses all charges on March 7, claiming fear for personal safety and for the business.
+ March 20, 2024– Since local Dane County prosecutor Ismael Ozanne was given evidence in 2018 but failed to investigate Ridglan Farms, frmr. defendant and lawyer Wayne Hsiung files a 101-page petition requesting a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate Ridglan Farms.
+ October 23, 2024, Judge Rhonda Lanford holds an all-day evidentiary Hearing regarding allegations of animal cruelty at Ridglan Farms to see if a special prosecutor should be appointed. Testimony includes canine behaviorists, veterinarians and two Ridglan employees, turned whistle-blowers.
+ January 9, 2025 Judge Lanford finds probable cause, grants the petition for a Special Prosecutor and appoints D.A. Tim Gruenke to investigate Ridglan.
+ Oct. 28, 2025 Without visiting Ridglan Farms or speaking with either whistle-blower, Special Prosecutor Tim Gruenke signs a settlement agreement with Ridglan: no criminal prosecution if Ridglan surrenders its commercial breeder license by July 1, 2026. Ridglan may continue selling ~3,500 dogs until then. No provision is made to surrender any unsold, “surplus” dogs.
+ Winter 2025-2026 Ridglan continues rejecting pleas to surrender surplus dogs to Kindness Ranch sanctuary, despite their capacity and sanctuary experience with Envigo’s 4000 beagles. Since Ridglan sold 1,736 dog cadavers to NASCO Education in 2019-2020, dog lovers worry Ridglan will kill hundreds of unsold dogs in June, selling them for dissection.
+ March 15, 2026. 50-60 activists led by Wayne Hsiung enter Ridglan and remove 30 beagles. They are intercepted by deputies, arrested, and eight beagles are returned to Ridglan.
+ March 21 Wayne Hsiung calls for 2000 volunteers to “save them all.” By April 15, 2000 volunteers sign up for the April 19 action.
Hsiung’s determination to save Ridglan’s beagles is very personal. But it tracks with growing nationwide discomfort about animal testing.
“In 2001, two thirds of Americans felt animal testing was acceptable”; now, only about 47% do. This ideological shift is driven by new approach methodologies (NAMs) in biomedical research, is reflected in the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 and is aided by a two-time president suspicious of science.
Ridglan has lost considerable legal and legislative ground since 2024; it surrendered its commercial breeder license and its manager’s veterinary license in 2025. April 29 their Congressman tweeted “Shut. Them. Down.”
Although Ridglan may be troubled by diminishing sales and eager to sell the bulk of their beagles, Wayne Hsiung is the last man Ridglan would negotiate with.
In the next year or two, Ridglan, co-owner James Burns and the security organization Ridglan hired may find themselves negotiating with another attorney, Susan Chana Lask. Lask filed a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of injured rescuers. Injuries include: chemical burns, fractures, teeth knocked out, internal bleeding, seizures and prolonged respiratory distress.
Lask is charging Ridglan Farms with digging illegal trenches, creating a biohazard zone by filling those trenches with feces and “conspiring with Ridglan’s hired security guards to pepper spray and tear gas Plaintiffs, blinding and disorienting them, causing them to stumble into deep, manure trenches” they were too injured and addled to see.
Lask is also charging the Dane County Sheriff’s office and Melissa Agard, the executive of the board of Dane County, with instructing 911 to withhold medical assistance and ignore the “pleas of people who were blinded, choked, burned, shot and contaminated when they predictably fell into feces-filled trenches.”
Lask told me this morning that she has interviewed 70 potential class members, but expects the final tally “will be much higher since one of the class definitions is ‘everyone who was affected by tear gas alone’.”
What’s next for Wayne Hsiung and SaveTheDogs?
To build on the momentum of Ridglan, SaveTheDogs has already set it sights on the last US mega-breeding facility: Marshall BioResources in North Rose, New York. The coalition have appealed to Gov. Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James and Rep. Nick Langworthy. Hsiung will outline strategy May 15-17 at the Grassroots Animal Rights Summit in D.C.
As for the volunteer rescuers? Enlightened by the experience, many claim they are more determined than deterred.
