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Add an EventAnimal rights activists storm Dane County dog breeding facility
Hundreds of animal rights activists raided a controversial Wisconsin dog breeding and testing facility in Dane county Saturday morning, one day ahead of the expected protest.
Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett reported 300 to 400 violent activists attempting to break into Ridglan Farms in Blue Mounds.
Barrett said activists had “break-in tools and were cutting through the fence.”
“I want to be very clear, this is not a peaceful protest,” Barrett said in a Facebook video. “We have given warnings verbally, and have signs clearly identifying where they can peacefully protest, and they have ignored those signs and have come into the property and are actively causing a disturbance and chaos in our Dane County community.”
Ridglan Farms is one of the country’s largest breeders of beagles for scientific, biomedical and veterinary research. None of the dogs were removed from the facility on Saturday.
As part of a court settlement last year to avoid prosecution, Ridglan Farms has until July 1 to sell or remove its remaining dogs. The facility’s state breeding license will no longer hold after that deadline. Another sector of the facility, which does direct research, is licensed separately and will continue.
The settlement followed a special prosecutor’s investigation launched in January 2025, which came after years of effort from animal rights activists to shutter what they describe as one of the country’s three largest breeders of beagles for research.
Madison resident Amy Van Aartsen is with the Marty Project, a nonprofit organization that advocates for not using animals for research.
She said Wayne Hsiung, a long-time animal rights activist, was trying to serve Ridglan Farms with court papers related to the lawsuit Saturday morning when police immediately arrested him.
Online jail records show that Hsiung was booked into the Dane County Jail at around 9:45 a.m. for conspiracy to commit burglary.
“There was numerous law enforcement there with tear gas, many people were also hit with rubber bullets,” Aartsen said. “The police response was just really devastating and disappointing.”
According to the Dane County Sheriff’s Office Sunday morning, “a significant number of arrests were made.”
In a statement Saturday night, Ridglan Farms said if any participants, their supporters or police were injured it was Hsiung’s fault, who “organized, egged on and then led hundreds of individuals in a violent assault on a veterinary medicine research facility dedicated to improving the health of our pet animals.”
It was the second attempt in as many months by protesters to take beagles from the Ridglan Farms facility in Blue Mounds, a small town about 25 miles (about 40 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Madison.
Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett, said in a video statement that 300 to 400 protesters were “violently trying to break into the property” and assault officers. He said protesters have ignored designated areas for peaceful protest and blocked roads to prevent emergency vehicles from entering.
“This is not a peaceful protest,” Barrett said.
The sheriff’s department said a “significant” number of people were arrested out of about 1,000 protesters at the site but did not give an exact total as they were still being processed as of the afternoon.
Protesters tried to overcome barricades that included a manure-filled trench, hay bales and a barbed-wire fence. Some protesters did get through the fence but were unable to enter the facility, where an estimated 2,000 beagles are kept, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
“I just feel defeated,” activist Julie Vrzeski told the newspaper about three hours into the operation after no dogs had been successfully seized.
Activists later moved from the Ridglan facility to protest outside the jail in downtown Madison.
The group Coalition to Save the Ridglan Dogs had publicized plans to seize the dogs Sunday but launched its operation a day earlier. The X account of the group’s leader, Wayne Hsiung, posted a picture of him being arrested.
The sheriff’s department said a person who “recklessly” drove a pickup through the front gate of the property was arrested, “preventing a potentially deadly outcome.”
Protesters broke into the facility in March and took 30 dogs. Twenty-seven people were arrested on trespassing and other charges.
Ridglan has denied mistreating animals but agreed in October to give up its state breeding license as of July 1 as part of a deal to avoid prosecution on animal mistreatment charges.
On its website it says “no credible evidence of animal abuse, cruelty, mistreatment or neglect at Ridglan Farms has ever been presented or substantiated.”
The ticket, issued Thursday by the Dane County Land and Water Resources Department, faults Ridglan Farms for installing a manure storage facility without the proper permit. Online court records show the company has the option of appearing for a hearing in the case on May 27 and lists a bond amount for the violation of $452.50.
Prior to some 1,000 protesters arriving at the town of Blue Mounds facility, Ridglan’s owners had a trench dug, which they then lined with manure.
It, along with a line of round hay bales, were intended to serve as additional barriers to the facility after activists on March 15 were able to break through Ridglan’s chain-link fence then get into the buildings where its beagles are kept. The activists left with 30 beagles, eight of which were late returned to Ridglan by the Sheriff’s Office.
Activists, most recently with a group called the Coalition to Save the Ridglan Dogs, contend Ridglan is mistreating its beagles and wants them freed and put up for adoption. Ridglan says the animals are treated humanely and used in important research conducted at the facility and by other entities.
A spokesperson for Ridglan Farms did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Dane County Sheriff’s Office has referred charges to the District Attorney’s Office against 63 people involved in the March 15 incident at Ridglan, mostly for burglary-related offenses. It did not appear Monday that the DA had filed charges against any of them.
The Sheriff’s Office has also said that nearly 30 people were arrested in Saturday’s incident. Of those, most were issued citations and released. It also did not appear that charges have yet been brought against any of those people.
Prior to some 1,000 protesters arriving, Ridglan Farms' owners had a trench dug, which they then lined with manure.
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