2,500 Beagles in Need of Homes After Wisconsin Beagle Breeding Facility Shutters

After a year-long investigation of animal cruelty and abuse, a massive Wisconsin Beagle breeder will permanently surrender its breeding license. Ridglan Farms raises Beagles for scientific and medical research, and in recent years, they have come under fire for alleged animal abuse. As part of a settlement to avoid prosecution, the facility has agreed to relinquish its license to breed and sell dogs for experimentation. Ridglan Farms has until July 1, 2026 to offload the 2,500 dogs currently remaining in the facility. 

The animal rights groups involved in the case are determined to get the dogs into proper homes and will continue to press for the immediate rescue and placements of all the dogs. 

While Ridglan Farms’ state breeding license will be revoked after the deadline, their experimentation facility will continue to be operational. This means that, unfortunately, Ridglan will be able to sell the remaining dogs until the July 1 deadline. The Dane County Special Prosecutor report on this case also states that this latest update does not prevent Ridglan from breeding and testing dogs in the future:

“Ridglan Farms agrees to shut down its dog sale and breeding-for-sale operations in exchange for the State not prosecuting the alleged violations. This will end the mass breeding and sale of thousands of Beagles for research. The company can still conduct research and breed their own dogs to use in research performed at Ridglan Farms — this possibility was outside the scope of the prosecution given the nature of the court’s appointment. ”

Ridglan Farms issued a statement about the situation, insisting that their facilities are safe and effective. 

“Despite the challenges of the past few months, we are tremendously proud of the outstanding care we provide to our animals, which play a pivotal role in ensuring the safety and effectiveness of cutting-edge veterinary and medical treatments,” the release says. “At the same time, we remain fully committed to the continuous improvement of our operations, protocols and practices to ensure our animals continue to receive the best care possible. Moving forward, we remain committed to combating disease and improving health in dogs and humans alike.”

The formal investigation into Ridglan Farms only began this past January, but animal rights groups have been pressuring public officials to look into the breeding facility for several years. In 2017, activists from several different animal welfare organizations entered Ridglan Farms and took photos and videos of the conditions the animals were kept in.

The groups claimed that the dogs at Ridglan Farms underwent invasive surgeries (including on their eyes and vocal cords) without anesthesia and that they were kept in solitary confinement in illegally small spaces, where their feces would build up. The dogs would often get sores and blisters from their cages. Two former employees of the facility came forth to corroborate these allegations. One said that the dogs “would be thrashing around in pain, often yelping, crying out.”

“We’ve been pressuring our public officials to look at what’s happening at Ridglan Farms, asking them to investigate, asking them to hold them accountable and hold them to the laws that we have and the standards that we have,” said Rebekah Robinson, president of animal rights group Dane4Dogs, told Wisconsin Public Radio.

The closure of Ridglan’s breeding sales marks the second major Beagle breeding facility to shutter in the past five years. In 2022, Envigo, a Virginia-based breeding site, closed down, and 4,000 beagles were rescued from the terrible conditions. In 2024, Envigo pled guilty to violating the Animal Welfare Act. Beagles are often bred for experimentation, because the breed is considered particularly docile and trusting. With Ridglan’s breeding facility closing, there is only one remaining large experimental Beagle breeding facility left in the United States: Marshall Farms in upstate New York, which holds approximately 18,000 dogs. 

“This shuts down a business that’s been doing cruel things to dogs for a very long time now, and that’s a huge victory, and something we’re certainly celebrating,” said Steffen Seitz, a litigation fellow with the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, to the Wisconsin State Journal. “At the same time, we’re hoping to get out those dogs still at Ridgland and get them into local homes so that they can get out from from the horrible conditions that they’re still in.”

Although Ridglan’s future breeding and testing efforts will not be regulated, activists’ current focus is on finding hoes for the dogs who remain at the facility. You can donate to Dane4Dogs, one of the groups leading the charge to protect these dogs, at the link below.