Animal Activists Arrested Attempting to Rescue Tortured Beagles While RFK Jr. Claims Ignorance

Animal activists swarmed a Wisconsin animal research facility on Saturday in an attempt to free 2,000 beagles from experimentation that continues under the Trump administration.

Originally Published at The Last American Vagabond

On Saturday morning, around 1,000 animal rights activists descended upon Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, hoping to free 2,000 beagles from Ridglan Farms—a USDA Class A dog breeder, and USDA-licensed research facility that has come under scrutiny in recent years over its experiments involving beagles.

Dozens of activists were arrested as the Dane County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) and partnering law enforcement agencies used pepper-spray and rubber bullets to prevent the activists from breaching the facility’s fences. Police also deployed a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), sometimes called a sound cannon, against the protesters.

Images and videos of protesters being pepper-sprayed and thrown to the ground while attempting to cut fences to remove the beagles went viral across social media over the weekend.

Waves of tear gas: Peaceful animal lovers are being tear gassed, pepper sprayed, and fired at with rubber bullets at Ridglan Farms. At least a dozen activists have been arrested. Hundreds of others are on the property now trying to rescue the dogs. pic.twitter.com/7JYg8S2XhP

— Wayne Hsiung (@waynehhsiung) April 18, 2026

Wayne Hsiung, co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere and the organizer of the Ridglan Farms action, was arrested shortly after arriving on the scene. Hsiung, who is also an attorney, was attempting to serve Ridglan with a lawsuit when he was arrested by DCSO deputies.

Animal rights activist Jamie Logan, who was at Ridglan Farms that morning, described the scene as “the best and the worst of humanity.”

“I saw compassion met with extreme violence—peaceful protesters met with tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets,” Logan wrote on Instagram. “I saw people show up with courage, love, and nothing but a commitment to peaceful change for the puppies at Ridglan Farms who are criminally abused.”

Photos taken by Yash Mangalick

Following the protest and arrests, the DCSO posted a summary of the events from their perspective, stating that protesters were warned they would be arrested if they trespassed onto private property.

“As hundreds attempted to break through barriers and fencing on the farm, others blocked roadways to slow the response of law enforcement and other emergency personnel,” the sheriff’s office wrote.

The DCSO said protesters who showed “clear intent to break into the facility” were sprayed with tear gas. Those who refused to de-escalate were then shot with “less-lethal 40mm munitions and pepper balls.” The DCSO also claimed that one protester drove a vehicle through a Ridglan Farms fence and was arrested.

The sheriff’s office posted photos of “burglary tools” recovered from activists, including saws, fence cutters, and sledgehammers.

The post noted that Wayne Hsiung was arrested based on “probable cause for conspiracy to commit burglary” for his role in planning the attempted rescue of the beagles.

“It was clear from the beginning that this was not going to be a peaceful protest,” said Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett. “The DCSO response to the active break-in attempts by hundreds of protesters was appropriate and proportionate to the behaviors observed.”

Ridglan Farms: A History of Controversy

Saturday’s action was the second attempt to rescue beagles from Ridglan Farms. In March, activists successfully broke into the facility and removed between 22–30 dogs, leading to the arrests of 27 people for burglary, criminal trespass, and criminal damage to property.

While Ridglan Farms denies mistreating or abusing animals, activists have been focused on the facility for years after videos surfaced showing various animal welfare issues, including beagles kept in cages with insufficient space, surgeries performed without anesthesia, and wounds left untreated for unsafe periods of time.

In April 2017, activists entered the facility and captured graphic video depicting the beagles’ living conditions at Ridglan Farms. Afterward, Wayne Hsiung, Dane4Dogs, and the Alliance for Animals filed a petition under Wisconsin law seeking the appointment of a special prosecutor.

In October 2024, animal rights activists presented their case at an evidentiary hearing in Dane County Circuit Court, showing videos from inside the facility and witness testimony from former employees of Ridglan Farms. One former employee, Scott Gilbertson, who worked at the facility in 2021 and 2022, testified that he witnessed near-daily surgeries conducted without anesthesia.

Proving these claims would show that Ridglan Farms violated state laws prohibiting animal mistreatment and requiring adequate shelter.

In January 2025, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Rhonda Lanford ordered the appointment of a special prosecutor, noting that the activists had established “probable cause to believe that Ridglan has committed crimes under Wisconsin’s animal cruelty laws, and the district attorney has failed to issue a complaint or commence an investigation into Ridglan’s conduct.”

On February 5, 2025, La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke was appointed special prosecutor to lead the investigation. Gruenke reviewed the documents used in the Dane County evidentiary hearing and information from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) regarding their investigations into Ridglan Farms.

The special prosecutor’s report identified five potential areas for charges: “cherry-eye” procedures, devocalization procedures, proper shelter and space requirements, sanitation standards, and improper enclosures causing serious injuries.

The report concluded that most claims lacked strong evidence. For example, when it came to devocalization procedures (removal of the vocal cords), the report found that witnesses had credibility issues, and the “only eyewitness evidence of devocalization was from a former employee who left in 2010.” They found no records, witnesses, or inspections that indicated any devocalization procedures were done within the last six years.

However, the report found strong evidence of violations in “cherry-eye” procedures, which involve removing part of a swollen or prolapsed eye gland.

The report concluded (emphasis added):

“Ridglan Farms routinely allowed non-veterinarians to conduct the surgery. They did not use general anesthesia, which resulted in pain to the animals and potential aftercare pain. Unlike other claims, the procedures were done well within the statute of limitations. The Vet Board and DATCP determined that the way Ridglan Farms personnel did the cherry-eye procedure (until recently) did not meet current standards of veterinary care in Wisconsin. The records provided by Ridglan Farms themselves showed proof of the occurrences. Gruenke concluded this procedure was in fact animal mistreatment as defined under the statute and could be charged.“

The report also notes that the Wisconsin Veterinary Licensing Board was investigating veterinarians employed by Ridglan Farms in connection with cherry-eye procedures. In fact, after the board ordered the emergency suspension of the lead veterinarian and facility manager at Ridglan Farms, Dr. Rick Van Domelen, a judge upheld the decision in September 2025.

Gruenke wrote in his report that despite the evidence of violations of Wisconsin state statutes, “Ridglan Farms made clear they would argue that because they conduct research, and all of the dogs being bred would also be for research purposes, the Wisconsin statutes do not apply to them.”

In the end, Gruenke and Ridglan Farms reached a settlement whereby Ridglan agreed to shut down its dog sale and breeding-for-sale operations and surrender its state breeding license by July 1, 2026, in exchange for no prosecution. The facility continued to deny any abuse or neglect.

The agreement states, “the State of Wisconsin agrees… all alleged civil and criminal violations referred to in and contemplated by Judge Rhonda Lanford’s referral… will not be brought against Ridglan Farms and are forever barred from being brought in a criminal or civil action.”

HHS Secretary Kennedy Feigns Ignorance

Only days before animal activists swarmed Ridglan Farms, Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan questioned Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the treatment of beagles at the facility during a House Appropriations Committee hearing. Pocan cited the July 1 deadline for Ridglan to end its dog selling license and warned that the dogs could be euthanized without HHS intervention.

“In my district we have something called Ridglan Farms. That’s a beagle breeder for research. They’ve had 311 code violations including very serious harm to the health of dogs,” Pocan said to Kennedy. “So grants are still, in the last month, going to groups that are getting beagles from Ridglan Farms. Could you please take a look at this?”

Pocan also told Kennedy that “you’re still giving money to groups through the NIH that are using beagles from this highly questionable farm.”

WOW:

RFK Jr. was just grilled about the NIH approving new funding for cruel beagle labs on his watch.

“You’re still giving money to groups through the NIH that are using beagles!”

Watch this shocking moment from today’s hearing:

Rep. Mark Pocan cited our investigations to… pic.twitter.com/vbymUoJZlW

— White Coat Waste (@WhiteCoatWaste) April 16, 2026

“I have a hard time. I believe you, but I have a hard time believing that. I need to look into this,” Kennedy responded. The HHS Secretary claimed the Trump administration had “done more than any other administration in history to end animal testing.”

Following the hearing, Pocan posted on Twitter/X, “In my district, a beagle breeding facility called Ridglan Farms has hundreds of code violations, including serious harm to the health of the dogs, yet the NIH is still giving funding to groups that use the beagles from this facility. I urged Secretary Kennedy to stop this practice.”

Kennedy is correct that the Trump administration has taken steps to reduce animal testing. In April 2025, NIH announced plans to establish the Office of Research Innovation, Validation, and Application (ORIVA) to coordinate NIH-wide efforts to develop, validate, and scale the use of non-animal approaches for biomedical research.

That same month the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it was replacing animal testing in the development of monoclonal antibody therapies with “more effective, human-relevant methods.” The FDA simultaneously released a roadmap to reducing animal testing in preclinical safety studies. The agency recently celebrated one year of implementing policy changes to reduce animal testing.

However, Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President of the White Coat Waste Project (WCWP), says that since Kennedy took office, more than $126 million in new funding has been awarded to facilities that experiment on dogs and cats.

“Starting over a year ago, at their request, we provided Kennedy and [NIH Director] Bhattacharya’s teams with info on taxpayer-funded grants paying for cat and dog testing, including Fauci-approved experiments on Ridglan beagles,” Goodman wrote. “Instead of shutting down the labs and retiring the survivors, the NIH gave the labs we identified more money. RFK literally lied to Congress about it this week.”

“Since day one of RFK‘s tenure, he has had the authority to cut funding for these grants overnight. He has even admitted this. But instead, he has kept them alive.”

In fact, documents obtained by WCWP show that beagles from Ridglan Farms continue to be used in NIH-funded experiments, including tick bite studies at the University of Missouri (originally approved under Anthony Fauci and continuing under the Trump administration). Other funding sources include the Department of the Interior, National Science Foundation, and Department of Agriculture. Involved universities include the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Colorado State University, University of Georgia, Southern Research Institute, Kansas State University, and Texas A&M University.

While these experiments are not directly related to the “BeagleGate” scandals exposed under Fauci, the continuation of this experimentation has drawn severe criticism among Kennedy’s supporters in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. Especially in light of the fact that prior to being HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy wrote the book The Real Anthony Fauci, explicitly spoke against BeagleGate, and claimed he would help put an end to these experiments as part of the Trump administration.

Unfortunately, as WCWP recently noted, since becoming HHS Secretary, Kennedy’s NIH has “renewed wasteful, deadly tests on dogs, cats, primates, and other animals,” which were first approved and funded by Fauci. To raise awareness of these facts, WCWP recently launched a national “WTF RFK?” ad campaign targeting Kennedy for continuing to fund Fauci-era animal labs.

HHS told The Last American Vagabond (TLAV) that Ridglan “does not receive NIH grants or funding” and noted that “NIH enforces strict policies to protect animal welfare and maintain rigorous oversight as the agency works to reduce reliance on animal models over time.”

The USDA and Secretary Rollins did not respond to a request for comment sent via email.